The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1981

International Bar Association Section on General Practice develops

Any member of the IBA can join the Section, entitling him to attend section conferences, reduced fees for Section seminars and publications, receipt of its journal and to participate in the work of the committees. Details of how to join the IBA and the Section are available from the IBA, Byron House, 7/9 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1EE.

This Section was set up in 1974 to provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between lawyers in general practice throughout the world and on all matters affecting the legal profession, its development and the improvement of legal services to the public. Its seventeen committees cover all Fields of general practice, such as wills and administration of foreign estates, town planning, family law, civil procedures, estate and tax planning, defamation and media law and criminal law. The section now has more than 1300 members from 68 countries and its current Chairman is John Kennedy, Q.C., of Canada, Vice-Chairman Giselher Hochstrasser, Switzerland and Secretary Monty Knoll of South Africa. In May 1981, the Section held its first Conference in Lisbon, attended by over 10% of the section membership. Thirteen of the section's committees met. Topics discussed included Trusts in no-Trust Jurisdictions, the International Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments and Orders, Current Problems in Criminal Law — Legal and Human Rights and Narcotic Offences, the Involvement of Practitioners in Practical Training Courses for Law Students, Lawyer Advertising, the Development of Press Laws in Northern and Southern Europe and Comparisons between the defamation laws in Eastern Block Countries and the Western World, and Legal Aid in the 80's, what priorities? In addition, there were a Section general meeting, council meetings and a full social programme of excursions and receptions. The Section's committees will next meet in New Delhi, 18-23 October, 1982 during the IBA's 19th Biennial Conference, when the Section will have responsibility, with the IBA's Professional Ethics Committee, for one of the major conference topics on Standards of Professional Conduct of Lawyers, the Responsibility for the Control of such Standards and minimum Standards of Judicial Independence. Plans for a 1983 Section conference are already being made. Two of the Section's committees have already held successful seminars — the Committee on Law Office Management and Technology in Munich in 1979 and, in May 1981, in Lisbon on How to Maintain Profits and Improve Communications in the 80's, and the Commit- tee on Immigration Law in London in 1979 on Comparative Immigration Laws, with a second planned on the same topic for Washington DC, 8- 10th November, 1981. A seminar on Continuing Legal Education is planned for 1983. Members of the Section are entitled to receive its journal "The International Legal Practitioner" which is published three times each year. The Section's publications include papers prepared for the Committee on Real Property's Meeting on the Impact of Planning Restrictions, Building Controls, Environmental Considerations and Private Rights of Adjoining owners on the Development of Real Property; the Proceedings of the Law Office Management and Technology Seminars in 1979 and 1981 and their 1978 Meeting on Computers in the Law Office and the Proceedings of the Comparative Immigration Law Seminar.

Section on Business Law — Environmental Law Committee

The Environment Law Committee of the IBA's Section on Business Law, was established approximately ten years ago to act as a forum for the exchange of views and information among practising lawyers, interested in environmental laws, to promote the discussion, practice and teaching of environmental law both internationally and nationally and to keep under review material developments in such laws world-wide. The Committee works in liaison with the UN environmental programme and has participated in UN non-governmental organisation's conference in Geneva and New York. From 29 March - 2nd April, 1981 the Committee organised its First residential Seminar in Cambridge, England choosing for its topic Planning Law for Industry. The Seminar was designed to beneFit lawyers having industrial clients, working in Legal Departments in Industry, or advising governmental authorities on planning matters. Topics included EEC directives and law, Proving the need, Environmental impact analysis, Conservation and restoration, the "Developer pays" Principle, Effects on infra-structure, Health and Safety, Waste disposal, Control of new industry and State aids and taxation. The proceedings, comprising 32 papers and a summary of the discussions, have been published in two volumes and are available from the IBA ofFice, 7-9 St. James's Street, London, SW1A 1EE. Such was the success of this Seminar that a second is being organised to be held at the National 4-H Centre in Washington D.C. from the 4th to the 8th April 1982. During the course of the Seminar, questions arose concerning disclosure of documents held on a "Confidential Basis". Accordingly, two small working parties have been set up, one under the Chairmanship of John Spens of Maclay, Murray and Spens in Glasgow, dealing with the laws of Scotland and one under the Chairmanship of John Salter of Denton Hall & Burgin, London, dealing with the laws of England and Wales. The AM & S case now before the European Court of Justice will be examined in some detail, as will the production of conFidential documents by "in-house" legal advisers in the context, for example, of the exercise of powers by EEC inspectors and by planning Inspectors (or Reporters in Scotland) during the course of monitoring industrial plant performance or of an Inquiry into an industrial planning application. The Committee has also published a book of the papers presented at its 1976 Meetings in Stockholm on 'The Rights of an Individual against Acts of Pollution'. A second (extended) edition is in preparation. The Committee will meet at the IBA Conference to be held in New Delhi, 17-23 October, 1982, where the main topic will be Environmental Impacts of Alternative Energy Sources. •

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