Dear All,
We hope all is well with you.
As per tradition, we thought it would be a good idea to have a zoom call next week in the lead up to the Commission to discuss some of the items on the agenda.
Please see some of the issues it would be good to exchange views with some of our initial positions.
1.
Negotiable multimodal transport documents
- Railway consignment notes (p. 8 of the Work Programme):
It is still difficult for us to understand the proposal or the need for work in UNCITRAL on this, especially considering the on-going project on judicial sale of ships.
Our concern is that UNCITRAL will have two of its six working groups working on transport related issues, which might not be the best use of UNCITRAL resources. We have no problem supporting further work by expert groups but we will likely not support the
proposal to allocate a working group for developing the project at this time (at the very least this decision should be made only following the completion of the ships project).
2.
Early dismissal (pp.
3-4 of the Work Programme):
Regarding the addition of an early dismissal option within existing UNCITRAL dispute settlement
tools, we feel as though such a tool would be helpful and should be added down the line. However, Working Group
II ccould
first benefit from
some exploratory work by the Secretariat on
how such an addition could impact dispute settlement procedures under the UNCITRAL rules. It
would also be good to know how such mechanism were included in institutional rules in the past and what were the difficulties faced by the institutions in drafting and implementation.
3.
Possible adjustments to UNCITRAL working procedure (p. 11 to the Work Programme):
The suggested additions seem useful, including maintaining adoption by silent procedure following
Working Group sessions for adopting reports (while affording the opportunity for delegations to submit comments to drafts),
holding hybrid meetings, encouraging additional informal consultations, and updating contact details of each delegation.
4.
Future Work – Working Group II:
Assuming that the Commission adopts all instruments on the table or at least most of them (the only one which might not likely be adopted is the Explanatory Note to the expedited arbitration provisions. This raises the question for what should be the next
project of the Working Group.
Please let us know if there are other topics you would like to discuss.
As to our meeting time, please let
us know which dates from the following list would work for you (Jerusalem
time):
Tuesday, June 22:
14:30 PM
Wednesday, June 23:
14:30 PM
Thursday, June 24:
14:30 PM
We look forward to seeing you next week,
Best,
Itai and Lianna
Israel Ministry of Justice