We refer to our previous newsletters of 14, 17 and 24 August 2013; of 03 and 15 September 2013; of 24 October 2013; 15, 17 and 22 of November 2013 and of 12 and 13 December 2013.

We are pleased to inform you that the International Bar Association (IBA) is organizing its Annual Arbitration Day from the 13th to 14th of February in Paris. This event is one of the largest worldwide, organised every year, in the field of arbitration.

The theme of this year's event will be on the role and duties of attorneys and counsels on arbitration. This is a sensitive topic of considerable practical importance. As the previous www.ohada.com newsletters mentioned above demonstrate, this topic is also highly topical. Arbitrators who are lawyers, like all arbitrators, have a very strict obligation of independence, impartiality and disclosure. These obligations apply directly to their law firms. For their part, arbitration centers have also an absolute obligation to respect their own bylaws, to abide strictly by their founding charters which are just a reflection of the fundamental principles of arbitration, and to disqualify accordingly delinquent arbitrators in their obligations disclosure, independence and impartiality. The IBA has a key role to play in reminding arbitration centers, including the United States' AAA ICDR arbitration centers of their responsibilities in this area, so that most unfortunate and unacceptable recent mistakes are not repeated.

The event will include many other events, including a cocktail at the Hotel de Ville in Paris open to all and a festive cruise on the Seine for practitioners under 40 years old.

You will find all information on this conference at http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=512c00e3-cda9-466d-b592-89097d63f6dd.

500 people have already registered for the conference, which will bring together lawyers worldwide. However, it was brought to the attention of your website www.ohada.com, very few lawyers or legal experts of the OHADA Unified Business law States have registered for this event (only a substantial delegation of lawyers of NIGERIA represents the continent). Given that arbitration is a very important part of the OHADA reform and that this global event would benefit from the participation of prominent lawyers and other OHADA experts, we think it would be a good thing if Africa and the OHADA States were well represented at this conference.

That is why we are pleased to publish this information on the website. Please note that registration is open through 7 February 2014.

Download the program.

For further information regarding this International Day of the IBA Arbitration, please contact: romain.dupeyre@bopslaw.com.