Section Conferences

10th Transnational Crime Conferernce
7 - 9 June 2007 Washington DC, USA

The IBA 10th Transnational Crime Conference is in Washington DC 7-9 June 2007.  The Conference programme is very stimulating and is the result of a great deal of hard work particularly by the Business Crime Committee and Luz Nagle.  The Transnational Crime Conference has the attraction of providing the chance to participate closely with a smaller group and through debate and social events develop a useful network of colleagues.

Buddy Parker (USA) is chairing the session “Corruption: Latest Developments” with practitioners from various countries and a USDOJ representative as panelists.  This session will include consideration of the criminalisation of politics, Head of State immunity, political funding turning sour, joint venture with a foreign partner and asset recovery, asset freezing and recovery in criminal cases (i.e., stopping cross-border dissipation of assets, sovereign immunity considerations, barriers to recovery, procedural obstacles and choice of judicial system).

Michael O’Kane (UK) is chairing the session "Challenging Mutual Assistance and Extradition".  The session will cover cross border criminal litigation and representing foreign clients under investigation in the USA (including pitfalls for non-U.S. lawyers).  The question raised in this session include:  How can lawyers raise challenges to requests from other states? Are suspects being stripped of their rights in this area? Is the US the most aggressive at claiming extra-territorial jurisdiction? Are foreign business crime suspects at a disadvantage in the US system?This session intends to provide both an academic and practical analysis of these questions and examine the issues of forum, politically motivated requests, the experience of the European Evidence warrant, the European Evidence warrant initiative, and the policies of US law enforcement in international investigations.  Part Two of the session will involve a mock court hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in his courtroom in which a European businessman is making his first appearance following a contested extradition to the US. Areas covered will be US sentencing guidelines, the application of ECHR and plea bargaining.

Gail Shifman (USA) and Stéphane Bonifassi (France) will chair the session “Limits of Private Investigations”.  This session examines the tension between the interests of the corporation and the individual in cases of suspected wrongdoing.  Internal Investigations: The pitfalls and fallout (e.g., Patricia Dunn, former CEO of Hewlett Packard; Apple and other companies' option backdating).  How far can the private investigator go?  What are the criminal offences relating to the protection of private information and are they effective in preventing intrusive investigations?  Is the product of unlawful investigation admissible in criminal and civil proceedings?  The panel will address the lessons to be learnt, in particular from recent cases on both sides of the Atlantic.

Peter Binning (UK) is chairing the session “Representing High Profile Clients In Criminal Cases Including the Role of the Political Lobbyist and the Media Lawyer”. This session considers the special nature of cases which attract very high media attention and/or political attention.  It examines the mixture of media law as well as criminal law advice often needed in such cases as well as the role of the communications strategist or lobbyist.  It will look at issues relating to the protection of reputation prior to conviction and as well as celebrity crime generated by media intervention, including entrapment.  How can criminal charges be avoided by paying compensation – how far can you go to settle a criminal case?  What can be done to successfully influence government and politicians in high profile criminal cases? An international panel of speakers will address these issues and consider the different approaches taken in common law and civil law countries.

For more information please view the conference programme.

Singapore 14 - 19 October 2007

Criminal Law Committee

The Criminal Law Committee has responded to the call by Dianna Kempe which is evidenced by our involvement in very exciting sessions in the annual Conference in Singapore.  The two CLC sessions which will be chaired by Luz Nagle and Dan Conaway focus on the presence or implications of an appalling erosion of fundamental human rights and the Rule of Law which has escalated since the terrorist attack on the twin towers on 11th September 2001 in New York City. 

Luz Nagle is chairing the session “Organised Crime, Corruption and Terrorism: All About Money”. (Joint session with the Anticorruption Working Group). Where there is corruption, organised crime moves in with drugs, weapons, and human trafficking.  This session will examine the transnational links with organised crime and terrorism, how institutionalized corruption in both the public and private sectors affects the rule of law and the delivery of justice in the civil society, and how lawless states are fertile ground for terrorism and organised crime. The session will also address the impact corrupt officials within transnational corporations have had on weak and failing nation states and how foreign corrupt practices contribute to environmental degradation, internal armed conflicts, and endemic political instability.

Dan Conaway is chairing the session “Current legislative and practical barriers for defense lawyers' access to potential and confirmed witnesses for the prosecution”. In countries across the world, “anti-terrorism” legislation has been enacted by national governments as a reaction to 9/11.  These “anti-terrorism” laws generally work by restricting or denying access to information or people critical to an accused person’s proper defense, or by eliminating rights to due process.  How are defense lawyers supposed to be able to properly represent their clients and successfully defend them when they cannot gain access to the critical evidence related to their client’s defense which is in the possession and control of the government?  Our panel will discuss the problems these restrictions create for defense lawyers who are seeking access to prosecution discovery and witnesses. 

The joint sessions with other associated committees are related to this issue of the erosion of the Rule of Law.  They are “Serious violations of international humanitarian law from the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal to Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Models to deliver justice”: (Joint session with Human Rights Law (Joint session with Travel and Leisure) and “Iraqi Special Tribunal: The delivery of procedural fairness”: (Joint session with Human Rights Law”.  

Saba is our representative in the session, “The Olympic Games: a legal guide to all things Olympic: Issues of doping, travel, branding and sports law”:

The Committee will uphold the well deserved reputation of being a socially active body at conferences.  The proposed activities will include a couple of informal breakfast meetings, a long lunch and an informal dinner as well as the IBA dinner.

Business Crime

The Business Crime Committee is holding various session in Singapore:

Industrial espionage and business intelligence: a working group meeting
Industrial espionage and business intelligence are becoming a serious concern affecting a larger base of people and companies on a cross-border scale. The Business Crime Committee has formed a Working Group to analyse the role of the legal community facing this issue. The following topics are part of the scope of the working group and will be addressed during this session from actual examples:
assessing the size of the problem posed by industrial espionage and business intelligence in today’s world;
• what role lawyers should play to protect their clients both
before and after they are targets of espionage;
• what is allowed and what is not when it comes to business intelligence?
• the limits of private investigations.
This session is open to all those who are interested in the subject as well as those who are willing to contribute to the working group and possibly participate in a survey concerning the present legislation in their respective jurisdictions and its impact in an international environment.

Online gaming – recent issues in cyberspace
(Joint session with Anti-Corruption and Business Crime)
Online gaming is a huge market. Currently, efforts are being made to contain online marketing and regulate the market. Some would argue that these efforts are likely to regulate the market out of existence. The deep pockets of casino operators in cyberspace, regulatory issues, business crime and issues of trade policy will be at the core of this session that will examine the legal, regulatory and law enforcement challenges confronting those wishing to invest in running terrestrial and cyber gaming.  
 
Partners in crime? The risks facing lawyers in today’s world
(Joint session with Business Crime).
To what extent can lawyers get into trouble, go to jail even, as a result of the activities of their partners, staff or clients? Using hypothetical instructions, the panel and delegates will explore the range of liability, reputational, regulatory and criminal risks arising from the conduct of others, which lawyers face these days in international practice. Topics to be covered include:
• civil liability for professional negligence;
• dishonest assistance/aiding and abetting, and breach of fiduciary duty;
• the role and impact of professional regulation;
• the lawyer’s role in the prevention of money laundering and other financial crime; and
• the prospect of lawyers being extradited across borders.
 
Criminalisation of cartels: global trends
(Joint session with Business Crime)
In recent years, cartel activity has become criminalised across many jurisdictions in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, raising many new and challenging issues for corporate clients and their competition law and business crime advisers.
This session will examine many of these issues in detail such as leniency/immunity programmes from a criminal perspective, corporate/individual tension, cross-border cooperation, penalties and the interaction between civil/criminal processes. A unique and comparative insight into the government approach to these issues in the United States and Australia will be provided to contrast with the view of senior corporate counsel in Europe and Japan. The session will also analyse how certain antitrust enforcement regimes have operated in practice, what lessons have been learned and what challenges lie ahead from both an agency and a corporate perspective.