Seminar on Mutual legal Assistance

Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, is starting tomorrow, 6 July, at 6:30 pm, at the auditorium of the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (Luso-International Bank Building, 18th floor) the Seminar on “Mutual Legal Assistance: Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters”. The seminar will tale place until 8 July and will have as speaker Christophe Bernasconi, First Secretary of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The seminar will be conducted in English and addresses to the bachelors of laws. During the three days of seminar will be discussed the following topics “The Hague Conference on Private International Law – a brief overview”, “The Hague Service Convention – general overview”, “Scope of the Service Convention”, “The main channel: Central Authorities”, “Alternative channels”, “Derogatory channels” and “Protection of the defendant”, among other issues. The seminar is jointly organised by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre and the International Law Office. The Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, which incorporates this seminar, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System” and is already in its fourth and last year, taking place until February 2006. The total budget for the programme is of 1.980.000 euros, shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao. The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organisation of the pertaining activities ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.