To celebrate its fortieth annual session, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is organizing the Congress "Modern Law for Global Commerce". The Congress will provide an opportunity to review the working methods and achievements of UNCITRAL, as well as related work of other organizations active in the field of international trade law, assess ongoing- work and consider and evaluate topics for future work programmes.

Date and venue: Vienna International Centre, 9-12 July 2007

Audience: a broad international audience that will include delegates of member and observer States and representatives of international governmental and non-governmental organizations participating at the fortieth session of UNCITRAL, the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, heads of several international organizations involved in the formulation of commercial law, such as UNIDROIT and the Hague Conference on Private International Law, senior managers from multilateral and regional financial institutions, representatives of non-governmental organizations active in the field of commercial law, academics, practitioners and representatives from the public and the private sectors.

Programme: The congress will cover a wide range of forward-looking topics, both from an institutional and a substantive perspective, such as:

• Monday (9 July 2007): Process and Methods of International Rule-Making; The Roles of Global and Regional Harmonization; Harmonization of Commercial Law: Practical Importance and Economic Value; Commercial Law Development and Technical Legal Assistance: Goals and Stakeholders;
• Tuesday (10 July 2007): Economic and Social Development through Enhanced Access to Credit; New Horizons for Secured Transactions; Legal Issues on Corporate Governance; Developing Effective and Efficient Insolvency Regimes;
• Wednesday (11 July 2007): The Future of Contract Law Harmonization; Uniform Contract Law in Practice; Carriage of Goods in the 21st Century; Electronic Commerce: Beyond Functional Equivalence;
• Thursday (12 July 2007): New Procurement Techniques and Current Issues on Government Procurement; Long-term Government Contracts and Private Investment; Steps to Ensure a Stable Framework for the Settlement of Commercial Disputes; Commercial Dispute Settlement: Issues for the Future.

Speakers from all regions and legal systems will report on practical aspects and recent developments relating to areas where uniform law instruments already exists, as well as new areas in need of harmonization. Open floor sessions will allow for questions and comments by Congress participants.

Language and Proceedings: As part of the fortieth session of UNCITRAL, the Congress will be held in all official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), and its proceedings will be published by UNCITRAL.

Request for admission: The Congress is open to legal practitioners, academics, business representatives and government officials from all around the world. Given the limited number of places and the intergovernmental character of UNCITRAL, in case of need, preference will be given to government agencies and their officials.

Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements, including hotel reservation in Vienna, and for obtaining an entry visa for Austria, where required. Please note that the United Nations is not in a position to assist in any of these matters.