Reports of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the Work of Its Resumed 40th and Its 41st Sessions

A/RES/63/120View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 74 Report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the work of its 41st session, published in 2009.

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25 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the reports of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the work of its resumed fortiethError: Reference source not found and its forty-first sessions;Error: Reference source not found

Commends the Commission for the completion and adoption of the Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions;⁴

⁴Ibid., Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/62/17), part two, para. 100.

Also commends the Commission for the completion and approval of the draft Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea;⁵

⁵Ibid., Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 17 and corrigendum (A/63/17 and Corr.1), annex.

Welcomes the progress made by the Commission in its work on a revision of its Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services,⁶ on the preparation of a draft legislative guide on the treatment of enterprise groups in insolvency, on the compilation of practical experience with negotiating and using cross-border insolvency agreements to facilitate cross-border insolvency proceedings and on the preparation of an annex to its Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions dealing with security rights in intellectual property, and endorses the decision of the Commission to undertake further work in the area of electronic commerce and commercial fraud;

⁶Ibid., Forty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 17 and corrigendum (A/49/17 and Corr.1), annex I.

Also welcomes the progress made by the Commission in its work on a revision of its Arbitration Rules,⁷ and encourages the Commission to complete this work as soon as possible so that the revised Rules may be considered by the Commission at its forty-second session, in 2009;

⁷United Nations publication, Sales No. E.77.V.6.

Endorses the efforts and initiatives of the Commission, as the core legal body within the United Nations system in the field of international trade law, aimed at increasing coordination of and cooperation on legal activities of international and regional organizations active in the field of international trade law, as well as promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels in this field, and in this regard appeals to relevant international and regional organizations to coordinate their legal activities with those of the Commission, to avoid duplication of efforts and to promote efficiency, consistency and coherence in the modernization and harmonization of international trade law;

Reaffirms the importance, in particular for developing countries, of the work of the Commission concerned with technical assistance and cooperation in the field of international trade law reform and development, and in this connection:

Welcomes the initiatives of the Commission towards expanding, through its secretariat, its technical assistance and cooperation programme and, in that respect, encourages the Secretary-General to seek partnerships with State and non-State actors to increase awareness about the work of the Commission and facilitate the effective implementation of legal standards resulting from its work;

Expresses its appreciation to the Commission for carrying out technical assistance and cooperation activities, including at the country, subregional and regional levels, and for providing assistance with legislative drafting in the field of international trade law, and draws the attention of the Secretary-General to the limited resources that are made available in this field;

Expresses its appreciation to the Governments whose contributions enabled the technical assistance and cooperation activities to take place, and appeals to Governments, the relevant bodies of the United Nations system, organizations, institutions and individuals to make voluntary contributions to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Trust Fund for Symposia and, where appropriate, to the financing of special projects, and otherwise to assist the secretariat of the Commission in carrying out technical assistance activities, in particular in developing countries;

Reiterates its appeal to the United Nations Development Programme and other bodies responsible for development assistance, such as the World Bank and regional development banks, as well as to Governments in their bilateral aid programmes, to support the technical assistance programme of the Commission and to cooperate and coordinate their activities with those of the Commission, in the light of the relevance and importance of the work and programmes of the Commission for promotion of the rule of law at the national and international levels and for the implementation of the United Nations development agenda, including the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;

Expresses its appreciation to the Government whose contribution to the trust fund established to provide travel assistance to developing countries that are members of the Commission, at their request and in consultation with the Secretary-General,⁸ enabled renewal of the provision of that assistance, and appeals to Governments, the relevant bodies of the United Nations system, organizations, institutions and individuals to make voluntary contributions to the trust fund in order to increase expert representation from developing countries at sessions of the Commission and its working groups, necessary to build local expertise and capacities in the field of international trade law in those countries to facilitate the development of international trade and the promotion of foreign investment;

⁸Resolution 48/32, para. 5.

Decides, in order to ensure full participation by all Member States in the sessions of the Commission and its working groups, to continue, in the competent Main Committee during the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, its consideration of granting travel assistance to the least developed countries that are members of the Commission, at their request and in consultation with the Secretary-General;

Welcomes, in the light of the recent increase in membership of the Commission and the number of topics being dealt with by the Commission, the comprehensive review undertaken by the Commission of its working methods, which was started at its last session, with the aim of continuing consideration of the matter during its next sessions and with a view to ensuring the high quality of the work of the Commission and international acceptability of its instruments, and in this regard recalls its previous resolutions related to this matter;⁹

⁹Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 17 and corrigendum (A/63/17 and Corr.1), paras. 373–381.

Also welcomes the discussion by the Commission of its role in promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels, in particular the conviction of the Commission that the implementation and effective use of modern private law standards on international trade are essential for advancing good governance, sustained economic development and the eradication of poverty and hunger and that promotion of the rule of law in commercial relations should be an integral part of the broader agenda of the United Nations to promote the rule of law at the national and international levels, including through the Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group, supported by the Rule of Law Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, and the fact that that the Commission is looking forward to being part of strengthened and coordinated activities of the Organization and sees its role in particular as providing assistance to States that seek to promote the rule of law in the area of international and domestic trade and investment;¹⁰

¹⁰Ibid., para. 386.

Further welcomes the consideration by the Commission of the proposed strategic framework for the period 2010–2011¹¹ and its review of the proposed biennial programme plan for the progressive harmonization, modernization and unification of the law of international trade (subprogramme 5), and takes note that, while the Commission noted with satisfaction that the objectives and expected accomplishments of the Secretariat and the overall strategy for subprogramme 5 were in line with its general policy, the Commission also expressed concern that the resources allotted to the Secretariat under subprogramme 5 were insufficient for it to meet, in particular, the increased demand for technical assistance from developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet their urgent need for law reform in the field of commercial law, and urged the Secretary-General to take steps to ensure that the comparatively small amount of additional resources necessary to meet a demand so crucial to development are made available promptly;¹²

¹¹A/63/6 (Prog. 6).

¹²Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 17 and corrigendum (A/63/17 and Corr.1), para. 391.

Recalls its resolutions on partnerships between the United Nations and non-State actors, in particular the private sector,¹³ and its resolutions in which it encouraged the Commission to further explore different approaches to the use of partnerships with non-State actors in the implementation of its mandate, in particular in the area of technical assistance, in accordance with the applicable principles and guidelines and in cooperation and coordination with other relevant offices of the Secretariat, including the Global Compact Office;¹⁴

¹³Resolutions 55/215, 56/76, 58/129 and 60/215.

¹⁴Resolutions 59/39, 60/20 and 61/32.

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General, in conformity with the General Assembly resolutions on documentation-related matters,¹⁵ which, in particular, emphasize that any reduction in the length of documents should not adversely affect either the quality of the presentation or the substance of the documents, to bear in mind the particular characteristics of the mandate and work of the Commission in implementing page limits with respect to the documentation of the Commission;

¹⁵Resolutions 52/214, sect. B, 57/283 B, sect. III, and 58/250, sect. III.

Requests the Secretary-General to continue providing summary records of the meetings of the Commission relating to the formulation of normative texts;

Recalls its resolution approving the establishment of the Yearbook of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, with the aim of making the work of the Commission more widely known and readily available,¹⁶ expresses its concern regarding the timeliness of the publication of the Yearbook, and requests the Secretary-General to explore options to facilitate the timely publication of the Yearbook;

¹⁶Resolution 2502 (XXIV), para. 7.

Stresses the importance of bringing into effect the conventions emanating from the work of the Commission for the global unification and harmonization of international trade law, and to this end urges States that have not yet done so to consider signing, ratifying or acceding to those conventions;

Welcomes the preparation of digests of case law relating to the texts of the Commission, such as a digest of case law relating to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods¹⁷ and a digest of case law relating to the Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law,¹⁸ with the aim of assisting in the dissemination of information on those texts and promoting their use, enactment and uniform interpretation;

¹⁷United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1489, No. 25567.

¹⁸Official Records of the General Assembly, Fortieth Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/40/17), annex I.

Takes note with appreciation of conferences celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards done in New York on 10 June 1958¹⁹ (the “New York Convention”), the progress made in the ongoing project of the Commission on monitoring the implementation of the New York Convention, the decision of the Commission to develop a guide to enactment of the New York Convention to promote a uniform interpretation and application of the Convention and its decision that, resources permitting, the activities of the secretariat in the context of its technical assistance programme could usefully include dissemination of information on the judicial interpretation of the New York Convention, to complement other activities in support of the Convention;

¹⁹United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 330, No. 4739.

Recalls its resolutions affirming the importance of high-quality, user-friendly and cost-effective United Nations websites and the need for their multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment,²⁰ commends the website of the Commission in the six official languages of the United Nations, and welcomes the continuous efforts of the Commission to maintain and improve its website in accordance with the applicable guidelines;

²⁰Resolutions 52/214, sect. C, para. 3; 55/222, sect. III, para. 12; 56/64 B, sect. X; 57/130 B, sect. X; 58/101 B, sect. V, paras. 61–76; 59/126 B, sect. V, paras. 76–95; 60/109 B, sect. IV, paras. 66–80; and 61/121 B, sect. IV, paras. 65–77.

Expresses its appreciation to Jernej Sekolec, Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law since 2001, who retired on 31 July 2008, for his outstanding and devoted contribution to the process of unification and harmonization of international trade law in general and to the Commission in particular.²¹

²¹Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 17 and corrigendum (A/63/17 and Corr.1), paras. 393 and 394.

Reports of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the Work of Its Resumed 40th and Its 41st Sessions

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