The Gazette 1975

International Bar Association: Progress

Report 7

(1) Membership

The membership of the Association has risen to 73

Bar Associations and Law Societies from 53 countries

and there are over 3150 individual lawyers who are

patrons or subscribers.

(2) Individual membership

Following on the successful establishment of the Sec-

tion on Business Law, the Association has set up a

second Section on General Practice with thirteen

Committees covering non-business law subjects such as,

among others, Real Property, Wills, Administration of

Foreign Estates, Trusts, Planning, Family Law, Crim-

inal Law, Legal Education, Organisation of the Profes-

sion, Law Office Management, Corporate Law Depart-

ments and Civil Procedures.

The Council has subsequently appointed a Committee

to report upon ways of increasing the participation of

individual lawyers in the activities and governance of

the Association.

(3) The Fifteenth I.B.A. Conference

The biennial conference was held in Vancouver,

British Columbia, from July 29 to August 2, 1974.

Over 1,300 conferees and guests attended. Nearly 100

meetings were held. The full and successful social and

ladies programmes were helped by outstanding Cana-

dian hospitality and glorious summer weather.

The November 1974 issue of the

International Bar

Journal

is devoted to recording the conference pro-

ceedings.

(4) Sixteenth I.B.A. Conference

Preliminary arrangements have been made for the

next biennial conference to be held in Stockholm, in

Sweden, from August 16 to 21, 1976. Details of the

programmes will be published

in the

International

Bar Journal

for November 1975.

(5) Council meetings

The Council of the IBA met during the year in

Cyprus in April and twice in Vancouver on July 28

and August 2. The next meeting has been fixed to be

held in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 23 and 24, 1975.

(6) Section on Business Law

All twenty committees of the Section on Business

Law have been actively engaged during the year and

all except one met in Vancouver. Arrangements have

been made for a meeting of the Section Council and

Committee Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen to meet in

Vienna in April 1975 and for a Section Conference to

be held in Paris in October 1975.

(7) Section on General Planning

This Section was set up during the year, its formation

meeting being held in Vancouver in July 1974. The

officers and members of its Council have been appointed

and steps are being taken to appoint the chairmen of

its committees and to recruit support for it.

(8) Standing Committees of the Association

(a) A new Committee on Seminars has been appointed

to give effect to a decision of the Council to hold a

series to provide for continuing legal education to be

given by experts in their respective fields on subjects

which are so specialised or patently of an international

rather than national character that it is unlikely that

national Bar Associations would include them in their

programmes of continuing legal education. The Com-

mittee has decided that the first seminar on "World

Energy Laws" will be held in Stavanger, Norway, from

May 5 to 8, 1975. Leading experts have been found to

talk on the laws regulating the exploration, production

and utilisation of atomic energy, electricity, petroleum

and gas, coal and miscellaneous energies such as water,

wind and solar. National and international laws apply-

ing to these energies will be discussed as also the legal

problems that have arisen or may arise in these fields.

Details of the Seminar may be obtained from the office

of the Director-General.

(b) The Professional Ethics Committee discussed in

Vancouver a final draft of proposed amendments to the

International Code of Legal Ethics, first published by

the Association seventeen years ago. The revisions to

the Code will be submitted to the Council at their

meeting in May 1975.

mittee attended the United Nations World Population

Conference in Bucharest in August 1974. After discus-

sion at a meeting of the Joint Committee of the Associ-

ation and the Union Internationale des Avocats, a Joint

Committee has been set up to submit a report to the

United Nations on World Population Year 1974, and

a similar committee will report to the UN on UN

Women's Year 1975.

(d) The newly-formed Ombudsman Committee is

making substantial progress in arousing the interest of

Ombudsmen in its efforts to coordinate their activities

throughout the world. The response has been such that

plans are under consideration to convene an Ombuds-

man Conference during the IBA Conference in 1976 in

Stockholm, the birthplace of the office of Ombudsman.

(e) The Practice of the Law by Non-Lawyers. It

was decided in Vancouver to disband this committee

and to refer the study of this subject to a Joint Com-

mittee with the Union Internationale des Avocats.

(9) International Powers of Attorney

A draft treaty to provide for a standard form of

Power of Attorney to be used abroad internationally,

prepared by a Special Committee of the I.B.A., was

finally approved for submission to the United Nations

Organisation.

(10) Joint Committees

The subjects of the Right of Establishment Abroad

and Legal Education and Continuing Legal Education,

both of which were discussed at Vancouver are to be

referred to joint committees of the IBA and UIA.

(11) Publications

The Association has continued to publish bi-annually

in May and November the

International Bar Journal

and quarterly in January, April, July and October the

(continued on p. 289)

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