I warmly invite you to join us at the International Bar Association’s 2010 Annual Conference in Vancouver.

Our huge network of international lawyers will surely enjoy gathering in Vancouver, with its vibrant business climate, diverse cultural background, and spectacular natural beauty. It is a perfect place for us to spend time together and share our knowledge and experience. I am pleased to note that the Prime Minister of Canada has been invited to open our conference!

The IBA Annual Conference is the very finest opportunity for lawyers all around the world to meet one another and to discuss legal developments in various jurisdictions. In the current economic climate, it is ever more crucial to be fully informed and to practice at the top of our game. As the global voice of the legal profession, the IBA is uniquely qualified to provide you with the skills and knowledge required to do so.

Three exceptional showcase sessions will be presented this year, of great interest to lawyers of all disciplines. The Professional and Public Interest Division will look at the threat to legal aid as governments slash budgets in response to the challenging economic climate. The Legal Practice Division will report on critical issues related to the credit crunch based on the work done by the IBA Task Force on the Financial Crisis, whose final report will be distributed to all delegates in Vancouver. The Human Rights Institute will examine the complex issues relating to the appointment of judges and the processes used to do so.

Additionally, our Rule of Law Symposium on Friday 8 October will present a variety of distinguished speakers and interactively discuss the increasing erosion of the rule of law around the world and how best to promote adherence to its principles. This year we are extremely pleased to welcome Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and John B. Bellinger III, Partner, Arnold & Porter, Washington D.C. and Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations, (former Legal Adviser to the Department of State, United States of America, 2005-9; Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House, 2001-5) as our keynote speakers at the Symposium. In the afternoon, the Symposium will turn its attention to promotion of the rule of law in Haiti and the IBA initiative to rebuild its judicial system, including comments from Christian Ahlund, Executive Director of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), which has a large presence there and extensive experience working in Haiti.

If you are not already a member of the IBA, it is time for you to join. While it provides the benefit of a discounted member rate for this Conference and others, the real value is in the ongoing benefits to your education and professional development throughout the year, as well as your ability to be involved in and support our various initiatives to support human rights and the rule of law around the world. Its professional and personal rewards are without equal.

In particular, I invite young lawyers from around the world to join us in Vancouver where you will find a wide variety of tools to enhance and develop your practice. I look forward to meeting all of you there.

Fernando Peláez-Pier
President, International Bar Association

We continue to face increasing globalisation and the issues presented in cross-border practice, and now we have the new challenges posed in the wake of the financial crisis of 2009. In Vancouver, the Legal Practice Division (LPD) will continue to engage with these issues in various ways, with many individual sessions focusing on the fallout of the financial crisis and its impact on particular areas of law, as well as presenting the final report of the IBA Task Force on the Financial Crisis during our LPD Showcase on the morning of Tuesday 5 October. I strongly urge you to attend our showcase session examining the legal and regulatory challenges for a new approach to financial institution resolution regimes – it is certain to be a highlight of your conference week.

During our time in Vancouver, you will be able to select from over 150 sessions presented by the LPD sections, committees, and specialist groups that cover a wide selection of substantive topics currently affecting all areas of law. These sessions will bring together leading experts from jurisdictions around the world who work on the cutting edge of international issues, and who will shape the way we practice in the future. You will gain invaluable knowledge directly from your peers and will be provided with incomparable networking opportunities.

Alongside these hardworking days, I also hope that you will spend some time enjoying our very special programme of social events which feature the cultural best Vancouver has to offer, including the spectacular opening and closing parties. At the LPD Lunch on Wednesday 6 October, we will be celebrating the 100th birthday of IBA Honorary Life President George C Seward, of Seward & Kissel in New York. George is the founder of the LPD, as it was his vision that expanded our membership from an alliance of bar associations to include the powerful network of individual lawyers we have today, through the establishment in 1970 of the LPD’s predecessor entity, the IBA Section on Business Law. I hope you will join us to celebrate the extraordinary contribution George has made to the IBA and to honour his spectacular 100th year!

The IBA Annual Conference is a special opportunity each year for international practitioners in every field to bring together their expertise for the benefit of all. There is no better occasion for lawyers to gain useful and interesting substantive knowledge on such a broad scope of topics, while at the same time enjoying the pleasure of seeing old friends and making new ones in this wonderful city. I look forward to seeing you in Vancouver.

Hendrik Haag
Chair, Legal Practice Division

Welcome to Vancouver!

The Public and Professional Interest Division (PPID) has gathered for you at this meeting the latest knowledge and debate on issues that matter to all lawyers. Our committees will present sessions in Vancouver that address law as a profession and ‘more than an occupation’. Our programmes will explore such diverse topics as the management of our practice, the impact of regulations applying to lawyers, and professional ethics, as well as broader issues such as observance of the rule of law, access to justice, improvement of the quality of legal education, protection of human rights, corporate social responsibility, and support for pro bono work.

We are bringing together a magnificent array of distinguished speakers to examine these topics and many others. In addition, this meeting will provide you with a very special opportunity to network with colleagues in your fields of interest from all over the world, as well as presenting new ways for you to become involved with the very important work of the PPID.

The committees and activities of this Division provide you with a valuable opportunity to add your voice to the global voice of the legal profession as we speak out on matters integral to our profession. We have various committees and other entities addressing issues of particular interest for lawyer groups, such as women lawyers, young lawyers, senior lawyers and judges, while other committees are grouped around a particular type of public legal issue, such as anti-corruption or corporate social responsibility. Still others address wider professional interests such as academic development or working with world organisations on legal issues.

In addition, the Bar Issues Commission provides a forum for bar associations and law societies from around the world to discuss issues of common interest, and to seek mutually beneficial solutions to the challenges presented by increased globalisation.

This range of topics is reflected in the array of wonderful sessions the PPID is presenting during the conference week, including our showcase session on the morning of Wednesday 6 October, when we will discuss how governments around the world have tightened their budgets in a manner which threatens legal aid and access to justice for those in urgent need of it. I encourage you to attend this session which will certainly present a lively debate.

Our speaker at the PPID Lunch on Thursday 7 October will be retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Justice O’Connor has been a leading advocate for the rule of law and judicial independence throughout the world, and I know you will be inspired by her remarks. Please plan to attend this luncheon.

I hope you will take full advantage of the many invaluable benefits available to you at this year’s Annual Conference. I look forward to seeing you in Vancouver and to welcoming you to our Division’s programmes. Celebrate with us our great legal profession – ‘more than an occupation’.

Robert A Stein
Chair, Public and Professional Interest Division

Welcome to Vancouver from the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI).

We invite you to engage with the wideranging and complex issues relating to human rights in the 21st century at one of the IBAHRI sessions, and would like to take this opportunity to highlight to you our showcase session, which will take place on Monday 4 October at 1500. This session will examine the processes by which judges are appointed to the International Criminal Court and other international courts and tribunals and measures to prevent abuse of international judicial positions.

At the Rule of Law Symposium on Friday 8 October we will present the IBA Human Rights Award 2010, which recognises outstanding achievement by a lawyer making a substantial contribution to the promotion, protection and advancement of human rights. In addition, we are holding sessions on criminal justice reform in Southern Africa, state-sanctioned crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and terrorism and the law. Our sessions will provide an opportunity to hear leading experts in the field offer insight into these contemporary and complex issues.

In addition, we hope that you will attend the IBAHRI General Meeting, a biennial event that allows all members of the IBAHRI to learn more about the work we have been conducting and our plans for moving the IBAHRI forward. In addition, this is an opportunity for members to pose questions to the IBAHRI Council and staff.

We look forward to seeing you at the IBA HRI sessions and events here in Vancouver, and hope your conference is a successful and enlightening one.

          
Juan E Méndez         Martin Šolc
IBAHRI Co-Chair      IBAHRI Co-Chair