The ICLRC took part in the 57th session of UNCITRAL
The 57th session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was held at the UN headquarters in New York from 24 June to 12 July 2024.
The Center's expert Vsevolod Baibak took part in the final discussion of the Draft Model law on warehouse receipts. The UNCITRAL secretariat appreciated the Center’s contribution to the adjustment of the official text of the Model law in Russian and approved some of the amendments proposed by the Center to the final version of the text. In particular, the Center succeeded to adjust the text of the law and replace the unclear wording that the holder of a warehouse certificate has a possessory security right in the goods with the clear term “a lien on the goods specified in the warehouse receipt”. Vsevolod also participated in the UNCITRAL meeting devoted to the discussion of unification of legal regulation of the carbon units turnover. It was decided to hold a colloquium in Vienna at the end of October.
Another Center’s expert Nikolay Dmitrik took part in the discussion and finalization of the text of the Model law on automated contracting. The provisions of the Model law are formulated neutrally and in a manner of non-discrimination of the various digital technologies used in the conclusion and execution of contracts. At the same time, the Model law, leaving aside the approach of functional equivalence, regulates digital commerce not as similar to the paper commerce, but as an independent one, built on its own principles and differing significantly in its approach to regulating the balance of interests of the parties.
The Commission approved interim version of the Report on the Use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Electronic Commerce as well. The work on it will be continued but now it is considered as one of the most comprehensive and structured studies on the possibilities of blockchain. The UNCITRAL research is emphatically unbiased and describes both the positive and negative effects of this technology on the various stakeholders in smart contracts.
Nikolay Dmitrik also facilitated the event “Digitalization as a tool to overcome the negative consequences of global crises” organized by the delegation of the Russian Federation on the margins of the Conference. He supported projects proposed for further work of the Commission. In particular, delegations and the UNCITRAL Secretariat strongly supported a proposal by Canada to inventory and compile a set of existing UNCITRAL instruments in the field of electronic commerce. The proposal of the Russian Federation to systematize and possibly codify rules for paperless trade was also endorsed by the Commission.
The Centre's experts participated in informal consultations on the margins of the Commission and also held a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of foreign scientific and analytical organizations.