IBA - Durban 2002 - Showcase Sessions

Contradictory professional duties - a catch 22 situation for the international lawyer!
International lawyers find themselves faced with the progressively more likely situation of facingcommissionsry professional duties in two vital areas:

secrecy versus disclosure
application of the law versus do not aid and abet.

Building on the Showcase sessions on Conflicts of Interest held in Amsterdam (2000) and Cancun (2001), this session will raise some of the contradictions now faced by lawyers as cross-border work continues to expand.

Lawyers have a duty to comply with the professional rules of their home country. In many cases they must also comply with the professional rules of their host country. What happens when the rules are different, and in some cases, provide seemingly irresolvable conflict? This is an issue for the travelling lawyer, for law firms with lawyers from different countries or with offices in different countries, and even for law firms working with foreign law firms on an ad hoc basis. In the most extreme cases, lawyers can find themselves party to criminal action in another country by merely fulfilling professional obligations in their own country.

Can a greater understanding of the position and function of a lawyer explain these differences and contradictions? Particular consideration will be given to the dichotomy between the prevailing views of lawyer as service provider and lawyer as an instrument of justice.

With the aid of current examples and thought-provoking scenarios, panellists from a number of jurisdictions, including France, Germany, China (Hong Kong), Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, USA and Central America will address the contradictions raised by contemporary cross-border commercial practice. The session will also provide for discussion amongst and between the panellists and the audience to guide future activities in this area of growing importance and concern to the profession.

WEDNESDAY 23 OCTOBER
0930 - 1230

The role and value of truth and reconciliation commissions
Joint session with Committees 3, 6, 11, 19, the Academics' Forum and the Judges' Forum.
Truth and reconciliation commissions have played a critical role in a number of countries that have had to come to terms with a past marked by protracted conflict, civil strife, violence, and massive human rights abuse. The most widely known example is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 1995 in South Africa to examine Apartheid-Era crimes. In the face of widespread human rights violations is the traditional criminal justice system, which has served society well, sufficiently cathartic to help heal the wounds of the victims and a stricken society?

This session will reflect on the role and value of truth and reconciliation commis-sions and consider the various forms which they have taken around the world.

THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER
0930 - 1700

IBA's Task Force on Terrorism

At last year's conference in Cancun, Mexico, it was announced that the IBA Council had agreed to establish a Task Force on Terrorism. Following the conference, a high profile group of international experts were invited to serve on the Task Force. They are:

Ambassador Emilio C�rdenas, Co-Chair, IBA's Task Force on International Terrorism; former Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Argentina; Vice-President of the IBA
Justice Richard Goldstone, Co-Chair, IBA's Task Force on International Terrorism; Judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa
Dr Badria Al-Awadhi, Professor of International Law at Kuwait University
Professor Cherif Bassiouni, President of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University
Sten Heckscher, National Police Commissioner for Sweden
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Chair of the British Council and Chair of the Human Genetics Commission
Fali Nariman, President of the Bar Association of India; Co-Chair IBA Human Rights Institute

The Task Force has quickly recognised that it is vital for the international community to find co-operative ways to combat the threat of terrorism and that it may be necessary to re-examine time-honoured conventions and principles. Over the past months it has been critically examining legal issues crucial to the problem of international terrorism against the backdrop of existing national and international law. At this session the Task Force will be presenting its findings to date prior to the publication of its final report at the end of the year.

DONALD H RIVKIN MEMORIAL LECTURE

THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER
1700 - 1800

The importance of international law in today's world
Address by Justice Richard Goldstone, Judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa

As the world becomes more tightly connected politically, economically and socially, and as the community of nations faces new challenges in the 21st century, the role of public and private international law grows in importance.

Justice Goldstone will speak from his special perspective as a justice of South Africa's highest court and as former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

The lecture is being presented in memory of Donald H Rivkin (1924-2001), a long-time IBA Councillor, who, through the IBA and other international organisations, worked to foster the pre-eminence of international law.