News
Silver Jubilee SAARCLAW conference to focus on drafting trade and commercial laws
The Silver Jubilee Conference of South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation in Law (SAARCLAW) is scheduled to kick off on October 27 at the Taj Samudra hotel, Colombo where the body was born 25 years ago.
The three day conference titled “Emerging Legal Trends in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries”, will be an opportunity for those interested in the development of law within the region. Meanwhile the 11th SAARC Chief Justices conference also will be held simultaneously.
This year’s conference discussions would be focused mainly on drafting trade and commercial laws exclusive to the region as it has been debating the necessity to harmonise some laws to promote greater regional cooperation.
On day 2 of the conference, the participants will explore avenues to promote foreign direct investment and cross-border transactions in the region through the introduction of an investment-friendly legal regime.
Significantly, one of the topics to be discussed would be forming ‘a common regional platform for combating climate change, environmental degradation, depletion of habitat, decimation of wildlife and deforestation’. Participants will exchange knowledge on issues faced at ‘home’, and come up with legal mechanisms to address these issues.
In 1991, some 175 members of the legal community including judges, legal practitioners and academics of South Asian countries gathered in Colombo to sign the SAARCLAW Charter. Organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the maiden SAARCLAW conference was held on the same day and inaugurated by the then President R. Premadasa.
As SAARCLAW celebrates its 25th anniversary in the country of its birth, Nihal Jayamanne PC, President of SAARCLAW Sri Lanka said that in his view, this body had become the exclusive club of judges and lawyers from the region to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest with shared learning in the fields of law reform, law enforcement, justice administration, good governance and social justice.