This session will be a study of governmental actions taken to acknowledge historical discrimination against the LGBTI community. Is there a case for reparations? How do governments across the globe come to terms with this history?

Family businesses often look to the next generation to run the business. But the next generation is not always prepared or qualified to take over the business. There may be multiple members of the next generation involved. Or the retiring generation needs cash from the sale of a family business in order to comfortably retire. More and more investment funds invest in family businesses to facilitate the succession. The issue of exit strategies or liquidation of the shareholding of family business has several angles. Not only the family dynamics, the interests of the investment fund who invests in view of a return on investment and the perspective of the (founding) shareholder who has long term goals need to be aligned. What are the appropriate mechanism that would cover such contradicting interests. In this session we will try to discuss standard clauses that are used in practice as well as examples of how such legal solutions reflected in particular situations in practice.

DiversityInclusionIn April 2022, the world will gather at the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 4th meeting of parties to the Nagoya Protocol, major international treaties aimed at protecting biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge.
On this occasion, the international community is expected to assess the effectiveness of these instruments to achieve the outlined objectives, including ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits obtained by accessing and using traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities to carry out research and development of products and services.
Taking advantage of this perfect timing, we propose to carry out a panel that can take stock of this international meeting while discussing current issues on the protection and enhancement of associated traditional knowledge from three different perspectives:

Theme 1: The effectiveness of the Nagoya Protocol and the Convention on Biological Diversity in promoting the sharing of benefits obtained from the use of traditional knowledge: reality or fiction?

Theme 2: The protection of traditional knowledge and benefit-sharing from the perspective of megabiodiverse countries: experiences and perspectives.

Theme 3: Traditional knowledge associated in the digital world: is it possible to guarantee prior consent and benefit sharing in a world where everything is available just a click away?

This programme will examine what franchise companies are doing to adapt to customers' increased awareness for climate change and demand for carbon neutral products and services.

Antitrust distribution rules differ significantly across the globe, so businesses have always had to keep a weather eye on antitrust laws when structuring international distribution networks. Now that many are prioritising building resilience into their supply chains, this has to be an important factor in deciding their strategy. The rules are changing in some important jurisdictions; new EU distribution rules in June included stricter rules for online intermediation services, price parity (MFN) clauses and dual distribution arrangements. UK rules changed at the same time, and differently from in the EU. Asian enforcers are increasingly active in in the digital sphere and beyond, and the US, though generally more relaxed about vertical agreements, has tricky rules around certain issues such as price discrimination. This session will explore how best to meet the significant challenges of factoring all this into distribution system design and ensure compliance across an international network. 
 

Tracing digital assets can be challenging to the insolvency and credit enforcement practitioner. In cross-border situations, asset tracing is even more challenging because each jurisdiction has its own source of laws, information and tools that must be understood by the insolvency practitioner or representative. UNCITRAL Working Group V has started a project which may provide recommendations and the European Union is considering developing an instrument regarding asset tracing. This session will focus on the tools the insolvency practitioner needs in this respect in order to recover assets of the debtor.

In this annual session hosted by the Anti-Corruption Committee, practitioners from around the world will discuss key anti-corruption developments from the past 12 months, regarding the relevant legal and enforcement landscape. Lively discussion is encouraged.

Cybersecurity, data privacy and artificial intelligence are all over the news these days.  Incidents are frequent and regulations evolve rapidly. 
How should companies that do business internationally track developments, and what is the organisational and compliance standard that stakeholders may expect?  Is compliance with the rules sufficient to avoid reputational harm and - if not - how do you deal with this aspect?

This session aims at providing practical insights on how global organizations may structure their governance programs - to ensure compliance with laws, to deal with incidents, and incorporating elements that hopefully reduce reputational risk.

The role of the intermediary is critical to the distribution and placement of insurance. That role includes acting for insureds as well as at times acting for insurers. The intermediary function can lead to disputes on duties, authorities, and conflicts. This session will examine these questions and consider the expected evolution of the intermediary's role.

Two years of pandemic and quarantine have shaken our world, and law firms are no exception. Discussions of whether we will have a “new normal” or return to March 2020 have shifted into questions of what the new normal will look like, and how it will impact the legal sector. A panel made up of managing partners from across the world will discuss how these changes manifest in their law firms, how they are dealing with them, and how they will develop in the future. All in all, what have we learnt from the Pandemic and the worldwide crisis?

This continues the Family Law Committee’s series on Family Law Risk Advisory (FLRA) issues. Parental alienation (PA) can be described as coercion of a child into behaving in a hostile or fearful manner toward one of the parents. PA profoundly affects both children and alienated parents. Children experiencing PA have an increased risk of having future negative trust issues, and depression.The satisfaction that might be felt by one parent if he or she tries to prevent the children from seeing the other parent can cause irreconcilable and often unforeseen problems for family relationships in the future. Some children never forgive a parent who has made access difficult when they look back in later life. We will be looking at the problem from multiple perspectives internationally. Is there enough focus on the problem? What can be done about it? Join the debate. Remember it’s not always just about the money.

Product liability in the 21st century - EU, US and elsewhere: Potential impacts on product liability due to the changes of the legal framework.

The session provides a perspective on a number of normative and policy issues pertaining to product liability, in particular, but not limited to, 

•    achievement of the current product liability system’s stated goal of restituting injured parties;
•    incentivisation to produce safe products;
•    raising the level of product safety;
•    balancing the need for improved product safety and the need for new products;
•    dealing with the cost of litigation, in particular, costs associated with mass torts; and
•    last, but not least, limiting the side effects of enormous judgments in isolated cases.

The session will also take a look at efforts to better regulate the often conflicting or at least competing objectives of the manufacturers on one hand and the safety expectations of the injured parties.

There are multiple challenges and opportunities for the oil and gas industry in the current decarbonisation context whilst the demand for energy resources continues to grow. How can nimble and progressive regulatory and contractual frameworks contribute to making this transition fast, fair, equitable, sustainable and efficient, achieving climate, development and energy objectives? Discussion will focus on the regulatory/contractual challenges of the energy transition and on the role of oil and gas lawyers as they help develop social, technological, financial, fiscal and contractual frameworks and tools for decarbonisation. Hydrogen and CCUS legal instruments will be also be discussed in this session.

Requests for early dismissal are a relatively new topic. The session will comprise of counsel and arbitrators discussing how they operate in practice.

As technology advances continually open up the ability for the world to re-engage in space, will the world be able to provide stability and consensus to countries capable of participating in research and exploration in Space. The panel will discuss international treaties and agreements already gathering momentum and members, along with changes to national legal systems to incorporate issues relating to space that have ramifications outside of their borders. The issues are many, including, intellectual property rights, insurance coverage, environmental concerns, and so much more.

DiversityInclusionThe investment industry is known for its poor diversity.  Awareness is growing. ESG criteria are now mainstream and diversity is becoming a key concern to asset managers. How do you shape a diversity culture in the investment world? How do you establish suitable goals and reward management for achievement? This session will aim at examining how investors influence and promote diversity.

Whistleblowing complaints are becoming more and important on employee relations. The implementation of the EU Whistleblower Directive, and the development of extra-territorial rules for US based companies have created a new set of legal rules and practices that will be discussed on this session. 

While the e-privacy regulation are not finalised in most jurisdictions; businesses are struggling to comply with the non-harmonised approached on cookies around the globe. This session will discuss what to expect from the courts and regulators as well as the current and future cookies’ regimes that will emerge.