International

Frederico Singarajah reports on the recent Brazil-British lawyers’ exchange programme in London.  

Last year, the inaugural British-Brazilian lawyers’ exchange programme took place in London during November and December. 

Between February and June 2014, Jelia Sane worked as a legal adviser for the Political Prisoner’s Solidarity Committee, Colombia’s oldest human rights NGO.   

Here she reports on the ongoing peace negotiations. 

There is no greater time to unite behind international bodies to bring justice to those wronged, writes Lewis Power QC, reporting from the annual International Bar Association (IBA) conference in Toyko.  

Lawyers covened from all corners of the world in Tokyo for the Annual IBA Conference from 19-24 October 2014. 

Can the International Criminal Court start prosecuting for the use and supply of chemical weapons? Sheryn Omeri considers the ICC’s options.  

The centenary of the start of World War I reminded us that it will soon be the centenary of the use of poison gas in international warfare. 

Illari Aragón explains the importance of this December’s Conference of the Parties (COP 20) in Peru and the pursuit of a new climate change agreement.  

In December this year representatives of the world will convene in Lima, Peru, in an attempt to reach a new climate agreement to curb emissions of greenhouse gases and to deal with the impacts of climate change. 

Helen Tung and Laura Newton report on their time in a Korean law firm on the Bar Council placement programme.  

From 28 April to 9 May 2014, six English barristers represented the Bar of England and Wales on an exchange programme organised jointly by the Bar Council and the Korean Bar Association (KBA). 

The United Nations risks again overlooking the rule of law in African development, says Suella Fernandes.  

I first visited Rwanda in 2008 with a group of volunteer lawyers as part of the Conservative Party’s Project Umubano. I went with Andrew Mitchell MP to teach advocacy, legal drafting, negotiation and substantive law to judges, government lawyers, community justice lawyers and law students. After further projects in sub-Saharan Africa, I co-founded the Africa Justice Foundation (AJF) with Cherie Blair CBE QC, which aims to build legal capacity in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors through education and professional skills training. We work in partnership with governments, academic institutions, Bar associations, and legal bodies in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world. We are driven by the desire to contribute to the development of robust, stable and predictable legal systems that meet the needs of both the citizens of those countries and the regional and globally competitive environments of which they are a part. 

The first Bar Council-led trade mission to Brazil took place in March this year. Mission member Frederico Singarajah anticipates the World Cup headlines and suggests that Brazil is already a champion in the worlds of business and law …  

This may well be what the headlines will read following the World Cup, which is currently under way, and I for one, being Brazilian, am hoping so. 

Illari Aragón examines threats to universal jurisdiction within Spain and the effect upon the Tibet case against China in the Spanish National Court.  

For decades, the Spanish judiciary has been at the vanguard of the use of universal jurisdiction. Since being adopted in 1985, universal jurisdiction has allowed judges to reach across borders and investigate and prosecute human rights atrocities committed around the world. The conviction of an Argentine naval officer for crimes against humanity during the country’s ‘dirty war’ (1976-1983); the prosecution of El Salvador officials for the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1989; and most notably, the detention in London of Chile’s former head of state Augusto Pinochet in 1998 for human rights atrocities, demonstrate the Spanish judiciary’s proactive role in bringing cases under universal jurisdiction. 

Britain is making a bid to become the next global centre of Islamic finance, with preparations under way for a £200m bond-like sukuk issue. Scott Morrison explains the background.  

Last October and for the first time, the UK hosted the World Islamic Economic Forum. Prime Minister David Cameron took the opportunity to promote Islamic banking and finance in the UK, advancing London as a centre that would “stand alongside Dubai and Kuala Lumpur as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world”. Specifically Mr Cameron announced preparations under way at HM Treasury to issue “a bond-like sukuk worth around £200m”, expected either this year or next.