International Colloquium on Applicable Law in Insolvency Proceedings
At its fifty-second session, in 2019, UNCITRAL considered a proposal from the European Union on applicable law in insolvency proceedings (see A/CN.9/995). UNCITRAL requested the Secretariat to organize a colloquium, in cooperation with other relevant international organizations, with a view to submitting concrete proposals for UNCITRAL’s possible future work on such topic, for consideration by the Commission at its fifty-third session, in 2020.
UNCITRAL agreed on the importance of the topic, which complemented the significant work already done by UNCITRAL in the area of insolvency law, in particular cross-border insolvency. However, UNCITRAL also observed that the subject matter was potentially complex and required a high level of expertise in various subjects of private international law, as well as on choice of law in areas such as contract law, property law, corporate law, securities and banking and other areas on which it had not worked recently (see A/74/17, para. 206). Therefore, UNCITRAL agreed that it was essential to delineate carefully the scope and nature of the work that it could undertake.
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Following the postponement of the Colloquium scheduled on 15 May 2020 in New York as part of global efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Colloquium on Applicable Law in Insolvency Colloquium will be held in Vienna on 11 December 2020 (tentative), in cooperation with the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
The report of the Colloquium will be before the Commission at its fifty-fourth session (Vienna, 2021) and upon its issuance will be made available on the web page of the Commission.
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The Colloquium will be conducted on an informal basis, that is, not as an intergovernmental group. Given the limited seating capacity of the room, admission is restricted to professionals who deal with applicable law in insolvency proceedings. Interpretation in the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) will be available.
Persons or organizations wishing to participate in the Colloquium should write to benjamin.herisset[a]un.org and aurelien.kamdem-bansi[a]un.org expressing their interest to participate and indicating their relevant experience.
The Secretariat will assess the eligibility of applicants based on the requirements set above. Selected participants will receive a confirmation email with all the information regarding registration and access to the UN HQ building.
*Contributions from participants and presentations submitted by speakers will be published on this webpage.
