2009 Symposium Panel Overviews
The International Lawyer's Guide to Development:
Current Problems, Future Solutions
Friday, March 6th, 2009
Hauser 102, Hauser Hall
Harvard Law School
Panel I: Corporate Responsibility in the Developing World
Development projects present special problems for both the company engaged in development and the host nation. These problems can be resolved through legal mechanisms, informal dispute resolution, or through overt power by one side. The panel will discuss experiences from the planning, execution, and post project phases of international development work focusing on disputes that arose, the manner in which they were resolved, and share ideas about how the process could function better.
Panel II: Trade & Development
Unlike Washington-based international financial institutions (i.e. the World Bank and International Monetary Fund), the World Trade Organization provides a unique forum for developing countries to protect their concerns through legal participation and law-making rights. But with the Doha round of negotiations dragging on into its eighth year and the rise of regional trade agreements, does the WTO still work for developing countries? In light of this question, some of the topics the panel will discuss are: tensions between other international agreements and the WTO agreement; the development of the legal principles shaping “special and differential” treatment; the rise (and fall?) of coalition forming; and the particular challenges facing lawyers representing least-developed countries.
Panel III: The International Financial System
Though the international financial system is undoubtedly global in scope, there are surprisingly few standards and norms to which all global actors are required to subscribe. The fragmentation of the system has a large impact on these actors - from individual investors to financial lending institutions and sovereign states – which has become even more apparent in the current economic environment. The International Financial System panel will first discuss the existing problems surrounding international financing. It will then examine models of regulatory reform to prevent global financial crises in the future. The panel will conclude by assessing the effect of these mechanisms on developing economies.
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