(presented by Drs. Carlos
Manuel Vázquez and João
Grandino Rodas)
At the 31st Regular Session of
the General Assembly held in
Costa Rica in June 2001, the
General Assembly requested the
Inter-American Juridical
Committee “to initiate studies
for the design of the agenda
and topics of the next
Inter-American Specialized
Conferences on Private
International Law (CIDIP) in
order to promote the
development of private
international law in the
inter-American system and to
present its proposal during
the next Specialized
Conference (CIDIP-VI) to be
held in Guatemala City in
November 2001.” (The venue and
dates of CIDIP VI have since
been changed. It will be held
in Washington, D.C. in
February of 2002.)
To that end, the Committee,
with the assistance of the
Secretariat for Legal Affairs (SLA),
drafted and distributed a
questionnaire soliciting the
views of broad spectrum of
parties interested in the
CIDIP process, including
Member States, academics,
members of the private bar,
and officials of other
organizations specializing in
private international law. The
questionnaire posed questions
of both a specific and a
general nature. The specific
questions related to the
topics that should be
addressed in CIDIP and the
process for both choosing
topics and for working on the
topics after they have been
selected. The general
questions sought the
respondents’ views concerning
the approach to private
international law
harmonization and/or
codification best suited to
the American region in the
21st century. The
questionnaire was sent to a
large number of recipients in
Member states, with a request
that it be forwarded to other
parties who might be
interested.
The Committee requested
responses by the end of July
2001. Despite the short period
of time given to the
recipients – a little more
than a month – a large volume
of responses was received. The
responses are attached hereto
as Appendix I.
This Report describes some of
the general themes that emerge
from the questionnaire
responses as well as some of
the specific suggestions found
in those responses. We also
offer some thoughts regarding
the topics suggested most
often by the respondents as
possible subjects of CIDIP
VII. |