Trade Development Through Harmonization of Commercial Law, co-authored by Prof Muruga Perumal Ramaswamy from UM and Joao Ribeiro, head of the UNCITRAL’s Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific
The 2015 UNCITRAL Emergence Conference on ‘Harmonising Trade law to Enable Private Sector Regional Development’ was held at UM today (30 November). This is the second joint conference of the University of Macau (UM) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Legal experts from around the world attended the conference to discuss the harmonisation of trade law, the regional development of the private sector, the latest trends in the unification and harmonisation of contemporary commercial laws, and the implications for regional business environment. Representatives from the UNCITRAL’s Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, the Macao SAR government, the Macau Lawyers Association, and UM addressed the conference. Prof Haydn Chen, UM’s vice rector for student affairs, said at the conference that the transmission of knowledge (teaching) and the creation of knowledge (research and scholarly work) are inseparable functions of academics in a university setting; therefore, UM has actively developed cooperative research with major research institutions around the world. He added that the Faculty of Law (FLL) at UM has established close cooperation with other law schools around the world, including those in the European Union and Portuguese-speaking countries. He hopes the FLL and the other faculties at UM will continue to leverage their strengths to promote collaboration between UM and international organisations in various areas. Trade Development Through Harmonization of Commercial Law, co-authored by Prof Muruga Perumal Ramaswamy from UM and Joao Ribeiro, head of the UNCITRAL’s Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, was launched at the conference. Joao Ribeiro delivered a keynote speech, in which he discussed the importance of the recently adopted 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development (the Sustainable Development Goals), and the important role of the UNCITRAL in the Asia Pacific region. Legal experts from around the world, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Mozambique, India, Sweden, the United States, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as scholars from the University of Western Australia, the University of Canberra, Villanova University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Hong Kong, Eduardo Mondlane University, Kobe University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and South Asian University attended the conference and had in-depth discussions on a wide range of topics, including international contract law, the future of international commercial dispute resolution, e-commerce law, cross-border insolvency, and MSMEs. The proceedings of the conference will be published later.
