Conference programme

Whereas the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) provides a comprehensive set of rules for international sales contracts, there are practical situations where recourse to provisions of national law is needed, such as filling gaps or addressing contractual provisions that refer to national law. This may, and very often does, result in conflicts where legal concepts, such as warranty or liability for damages, under the CISG and national law are not coherent.

We will discuss such situations using real-world examples and aim to develop a toolbox for resolving these conflicts of legal concepts. This session will present a case study and will be highly interactive.

This session will take a broad view of sustainability and look at issues such as sustainable careers, sustainable futures and stateless lives (looking at refugees and migrants), the future of humans (in the face of robotics leaving the factory and coming into our daily lives), a more sustainable rule of law and implementing sustainable DEI (coaching, mentoring, flexible working etc).

The session will be in roundtable discussion format with two moderators per topic. We will have three topics, with two Regional Fora assigned for each topic. Each table topic discussion will last for approximately 20 minutes, then the participants will change tables. The moderators will present their topics three times to three different groups of participants. The table topics will be as follows:

North American Regional Forum and Latin American Regional Forum
Implementing sustainable DEI (coaching, mentoring, flexible working etc.)

European Regional Forum and Arab Regional Forum
Sustainable careers

Asia Pacific Regional Forum and African Regional Forum
(title pending confirmation)

The panel will provide illustrative overviews of the tax issues, pitfalls and traps that arise in the context of international corporate and financial restructurings, whether involving distressed assets or addressing tax risks associated with outdated holding and financing structures.

Europe continues to lead the development of ESG regulatory frameworks worldwide, although 2025-2026 has been marked by a 'simplification' process known as the Omnibus packages, which seek to delay, reduce the scope, or simplify key legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

Despite political turbulence and debates about reducing administrative burdens for companies, the European Union maintains an extensive regulatory framework. The United States has experienced a significant rollback in federal sustainability priorities under the current administration, with the abandonment of SEC climate disclosure rules and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Other jurisdictions are following their own regulatory trajectories.

The panel will discuss how boards of directors should face ESG related duties, especially in multi-national environments, and how ESG matters may impact M&A transactions in this continuously evolving world.

In capital markets and other transactions, conflicts of interest occur frequently, especially if the issuer has major shareholders or is under fire from a hostile bidder or an activist. The panel discusses how the issuer should and could ensure that minority shareholders (and minority holders of other securities) are sufficiently protected.

The panel will bring together scholars and practitioners in trade, investment, finance and intellectual property to examine how international economic law (IEL) can advance — or inadvertently hinder — poverty eradication. Moving beyond growth averages, speakers will focus on concrete legal levers that shape fiscal space, policy autonomy and distributional outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.

Organised crime poses a direct threat to the rule of law. Illegally obtained money is used to buy influence, corrupt institutions, and infiltrate legitimate markets. This undermines public trust in justice and blurs the line between the underworld and the upper world. Lawyers also encounter these dynamics as gatekeepers, advisors, or defenders. 

Many jurisdictions have strict rules on how lawyers should handle suspicious clients and funds, yet there are also examples where things go wrong or where such rules are under pressure. This raises fundamental questions about independence, professional ethics and responsibility within the rule of law. How can the legal profession strengthen resilience against criminal influence without compromising its core values? And what can we learn from countries operating within different legal or cultural frameworks? The fight against organised crime is not only a legal challenge but also a moral one, striking at the very essence of our profession, worldwide.

Join us for our open committee business meeting where all members and Officers are invited to learn more about the current and upcoming activities and developments of the Committee.

From courtrooms to conflict zones, from boardrooms to government ministries, the legal profession is navigating an era of unprecedented strain. Regulators are tightening their grip. The rule of law and the rules-based order are fracturing. Ethical boundaries are being tested in ever-evolving ways that legal education never anticipated. Young lawyers are entering a profession that looks radically different from the one their mentors built careers in. Artificial Intelligence has brought its own unique opportunities and challenges.

Holding the line brings together the full breadth of the SPPI - across regulation, ethics and accountability, public service, firm management and the next generation of lawyers. The setting will be a world café style set of roundtables each discussing one of the challenges confronting the profession and discussing possible solutions to these challenges. This will be followed by a panel session to discuss the key takeaways from the roundtable discussions and attempt a prognosis for the future of the profession.

Join us for our open committee business meeting where all members and Officers are invited to learn more about the current and upcoming activities and developments of the committee.

We will explore some of the many sources of the pressure to implement AI and boost the visibility of legal ops, including the pressure to do more with less, the explosion of legal technology, data-driven decision making and internal stakeholder expectations. 

AI and digital technologies are dismantling traditional barriers of cross-border legal practice and increasingly lawyers are accessing tools that were once the preserve of large international players to research foreign markets, identify and serve clients across multiple jurisdictions and compete globally.
But these opportunities come with serious risks. Unregulated and unqualified providers are entering the market with little accountability, raising urgent concerns around the disclosure of confidential material and the integrity of legal advice. For qualified practitioners, the risks include deskilling, over-reliance on AI outputs, inadvertent breach of local regulation, loss of the trust of the judiciary and the erosion of the independent judgment that defines good lawyering.
This session explores how digital innovation is transforming the relationship between lawyer and client across borders and the nature, scope, and flow of legal services worldwide.
 

This panel – composed of senior inhouse leaders and practitioners – explores how legal and compliance teams are navigating an increasingly fractured world. Sanctions, trade controls, regulatory divergence, sovereign interventions and technological challenges including AI are no longer peripheral strategic concerns but must be embraced as part of the core compliance agenda. Our panel delivers practical insights on translating geopolitical volatility into effective risk controls, resolving conflicting cross-border obligations, and strengthening governance that protects the business.

Ensuring safety and quality in compounded pharmaceuticals, addressing industry challenges, and discussing measures to combat counterfeit drugs.

Family businesses are confronted with unique governance considerations. For example, these businesses may need to address conflicts at the intersection of family dynamics and fiduciary duties, which can pit personal relationships or loyalties against legal obligations. These conflicts may be further shaped by family estate planning arrangements, including wills, or complicated by the existence of outside investors. Family businesses also need to approach exits in a way that is sensitive to family legacy, succession planning and other factors. This panel will compare legal doctrines and toolkits, such as family constitutions, and translate them into real-world playbooks for resolving disputes and averting deadlock. The panel will also examine structures that can promote smooth exits and successions, including calibrated buy-sell mechanics, put/call options and staged liquidity.

As global energy markets face increasing disruption, the oil & gas and maritime sectors are navigating a shared landscape of geopolitical risk, price volatility, and regulatory uncertainty. From strained supply chains and rising freight costs to the impact of sanctions and chokepoint disruptions, energy security has become a critical concern for both industries.

At the same time, the push toward net-zero is reshaping fuel supply, investment decisions, and operational models, often creating tension between long-term sustainability goals and the immediate need for reliable and affordable energy.

This session will examine the common legal and commercial challenges facing both sectors, including supply instability, fluctuating energy prices, evolving bunkering risks, and fragmented regulatory frameworks. It will also explore how closer alignment, through coordinated contracting, infrastructure planning, and risk-sharing mechanisms can enhance resilience and support a more stable energy environment.

Bringing together perspectives from across the energy and maritime value chain, the discussion will focus on practical solutions to ensure that energy security, commercial viability, and decarbonisation can progress hand in hand in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

Many hospitality parties operate in multiple jurisdictions where they have established relationships with their legal counsel. When venturing into new jurisdictions for the first time, this established legal support is absent. This panel, featuring several general counsels from the hospitality, leisure, and gaming sectors, will discuss how they search for and select new legal counsel in these jurisdictions to meet their specific needs.

The discussion will also explore how AI affects counsel selection: does it empower general counsel with greater flexibility in hiring decisions by serving as an independent check on counsel?

Digital wallets are changing not only how we pay, but how identity, authentication and trust are built into financial transactions. As payment wallets increasingly incorporate verified identity, biometric authentication and digital credentials — and as Europe implements the EUDI Wallet under eIDAS 2.0 — the boundaries between payments regulation, privacy, cybersecurity and digital identity are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

This panel will examine those intersections from the perspective of payments and financial services. How do existing payment and financial regulatory frameworks interact with GDPR, DORA, NIS2 and eIDAS 2.0? What changes when banks and fintechs rely on wallet-based identity or biometric authentication to onboard customers, authenticate users or authorise transactions? And, most importantly, who bears responsibility when the technology, identity proof, data or payment fails?

This session will explore dealing with the challenges of an (un)insured world.

This panel will examine recent developments in the sphere of investment arbitration and treaty practice.