Conference programme

Digital assets have posed challenges to existing legal and regulatory frameworks. To resolve these challenges, initiatives are taking place at national and international levels that are meant to provide legal certainty for financial transactions involving these types of assets. For instance, work on the substantive law aspects of digital assets is being conducted by UNIDROIT with the objective to develop a future legal instrument containing principles and legislative guidance in the area of private law and digital assets, the Hague Conference on private international law is considering work on the law applicable to digital assets, and the Financial Stability Board published a proposed framework for the international regulation of crypto-asset activities with the main goal to promote the consistency and comprehensiveness of regulatory, supervisory and oversight approaches to crypto-asset activities and strengthen international cooperation and coordination. This session intends to provide an overview on the current state of these projects.

As the world gets ready for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, it is the perfect time and place to discuss immigration issues that arise in the world of sport.

Despite the international prohibition on torture, coerced evidence obtained through torture and CIDT still appears in courtrooms around the world. This session will examine the science behind the exclusionary rule: the effects of torture on body and brain, and the inquiries that courts and lawyers should make when faced with potential coercive circumstances.

All organisations today are expected by their members to explain how they are doing in terms of diversity. The panel will provide some selected IBA diversity data, which shows that IBA is already doing well in some aspects, but that there is some room for improvement in other areas. The speakers will discuss with each other as well as the audience through Q&A; various practical methods of enhancing diversity they have used within their firms or organizations, effects of using diversity data as a nudging tool to accelerate voluntary efforts for change, tips and taboos when using data especially in terms of privacy and LGBTQ right; what they expect of the IBA from now in diversity and inclusion; and which of the common D&I methods are in name only, and which of them are truly effective, such as target, quota, “comply or explain” rules, policies, training, sharing best practices, mentorship, messages from leaders, or otherwise raising awareness.

The session will explore how amidst rapid technological change and social and political instability the independent referral bars, in jurisdictions across the globe, strive to preserve and uphold the rule of law.

The Young Lawyers' Committee has participated in a series of surveys which show that young talents want more flexibility. Nonetheless, client demands force law firms to be available around the clock. How can we balance availability requirements with the flexibility required by lawyers?

In Afghanistan and Iran, being a woman translates to a life of bans and barriers, from education to public spaces and most forms of employment. It's a reality of being a perpetual second-class citizen. While international law defines apartheid (Afrikaans: “apartness”) with reference to institutionalised racial segregation, the systematic gender-based discrimination faced by women lacks a comparable legal framework. The moment has arrived to stretch the boundaries of apartheid, encompassing the realm of gender hierarchies.

The panel will consider this topic from two distinct perspectives; firstly, what is the impact of a supervening insolvency upon stakeholders’ existing rights to arbitrate their disputed claims? Secondly, how can the officeholder use alternative dispute resolution procedures in order to accelerate the adjudication of creditor claims and the collection of debtor balances in the insolvent estate?

This panel will address the risks which corporations can face when doing business in war zones and being possibly held liable as accomplices of war crimes.

A roundtable of enforcers discussing trends and goals of competition enforcement.

Professional wellbeing issues may affect lawyers' performance in law firms and lead to malpractice and liability of individuals and firms. This session will investigate what the ethical limits for firms and professions are in order to disclose ongoing wellbeing issues to clients and how it may impact their professional liability in case of mistakes and malpractices.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is the world’s largest free trade area bringing together the 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and eight (8) Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create a single continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of approximately US$ 3.4 trillion. As part of its mandate, the AfCFTA is to eliminate trade barriers and boost intra-Africa trade. In particular, it is to advance trade in value-added production across all service sectors of the African Economy. The implementation of the agreement will heavily rely on the collection or receipt, processing, transmission and storge of personal data of persons resident in and out of the continental area. This requires an effective and robust data protection regime across the continent. However, the data protection regime across Africa is fragmented, with some countries possessing separate data protection regimes while others have no such regime at all. There is no doubt that, the lack of a harmonised data protection regime will hamper the smooth implementation of the AfCFTA at all levels. In view of this problem, this AF session will examine the Legal Challenges in the African Data Protection Landscape with a view to identifying the challenges with Data Protection Regulations in Africa in light of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Treaty:

• What is the state of data protection regimes in Africa today? 
• Are these existing regimes aligned to the overall mandate of AfCFTA to create a single continental market and to eliminate barriers of trade? 
• Can the existing individual data protection regimes in Africa be harmonised for the purposes of AfCFTA or there is the need for a continent-wide data protection regime for that purpose? 
• What recommendations need to be pursued? 
• What is the way forward? 

As law firms move through the post-pandemic, the issue of legal talent retention remains a hot topic for law firms of all sizes.

The great challenge for law firms is actually to find a way to create workplace environments which young lawyers do not want to leave.

The session will therefore explore the key factors which drive (or should drive) lawyers in determining whether to remain at their current firms or to pursue other opportunities in the ongoing competition for talent.

After an era of globalisation, many countries are turning towards securing national supply and looking more critically at dependencies and potential security threats relating to foreign investment in and control of strategic minerals. With the recent adoption of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, which aims to increase US domestic manufacturing capacity and encourage procurement of supplies of critical minerals domestically and from free-trade partners, along with the recently announced Critical Minerals Strategy in Canada, including the Canadian government’s recent policy restricting foreign state-owned enterprise investments in the critical minerals sector and supply chains, and similar strategies and policies in other nations, investors face unprecedented regulatory, national security and geopolitical complexity in seeking to invest in, and develop, critical minerals around the world. New foreign investment and national security restrictions represent a global shift on who can invest and where, with potential implications for which countries will be poised to take greater advantage of the future green economy. This panel will discuss the impact globally of these recent developments and how they will shape mineral exploration and exploitation in the years to come.

Restrictive covenants in various guises are being scrutinised by legislatures, governmental agencies (both competition and employment) and courts around the world. This session will consider the interaction of employment law with competition law and assess the future viability of various practices such as non-competes, no-poach agreements, wage fixing and collective bargaining.

The global nature of social media highlights the complexity of navigating rules in different jurisdictions in a manner that satisfies government regulators, informs healthcare professionals, and markets to consumers, without infringing the DTCA rules.  This expert panel will share insights about the use of social media when promoting drugs and medical devices.  Learn best practices to use when advising companies on how to satisfy competing regulations.  

After the 20th National Congress of China’s Communist Party, people around the world are keenly watching China’s new policy initiatives and how these changes will impact China and the rest of the world. In the context of the uncertainties brought forth by the climate crisis, nationalism, Russia-Ukraine war and others, will the economic relationship between Europe and China unhook gradually like that between US and China? Will the investments between Europe and China continue to increase? Will the entrepreneurs and investors from Europe and China continue to remain bullish? 

This session will be using SLIDO.com.  To participate please join at: SLIDO.com #2883 275 

In the legal profession, there is a global tendency that female lawyers, irrespective of being 'on track' career-wise, leave law firms significantly earlier than their male counterparts. Many firms have ambitions to achieve parity on all career levels, including equity partnership. However, they are often lacking the relevant suitable candidates on senior level. The law firms are employing strategies aimed at steering against this development but with limited success, thus far. We will explore the drivers behind women leaving before being promoted and which changes can be implemented to encourage women to remain in the law practice. Who are the pioneers on parity amongst the law firms and what are their secrets to achieve that? Which structures and models currently on the market appear to have potential for counteracting the trend and which have appeared to be a failure? We plan to have an interactive session which invites all listeners to contribute. In order to achieve parity in the auditorium, we encourage all listeners to come accompanied by a colleague of a different gender.

A conversation with experienced mediators about the magic of mediation - sharing some of the “secrets” of the trade and discussing different approaches to different dispute scenarios.

Innovation in digital assets continues at a rapid pace, yet their status under the security laws of most jurisdictions is still the subject of litigation and emerging regulation litigation. This panel will discuss the considerations around which, if any, digital assets are correctly characterised as securities, the regulatory regime for intermediaries, and recent regulatory enforcement actions.