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29 May, 2021. Participating in the ITC Webinar, "Making Trade Agreements work for MSMES and Development".  Very good inputs from the German Institute of Development, the Nigerian Investments Promotion Agency, the WTO on Development, the World Economic Forum and other participants. Among some of the issues raised in the webinar, the idea that Trade Agreements should envisage Technical Assistance for the promotion of development was one of the main discussions. For this issue, a very good reply came up: the need to know i) what is needed from the developing countries' communities?, ii) reliable data to better understand what kind of technical assistance promotes development.

25 May, 2021. Participating in the Panel on "OCDE and Brazil: Trends and perspectives", wherein the OECD and Brazilian Representatives presented the OECD as an organization related to good practices, such as the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility, different from an image of the organization as a "club of rich countries". "Will Brazil be accepted as an OECD Member?" This was one of the main questions in the debate.  Some developing countries, such as Mexico, Chile, Turkey, Colombia and Costa Rica are Members of OECD already. Costa Rica has just been accepted as a Member of OECD. In the case of Chile, acceding to OECD as a Member did not exclude it from the G77 (a coalition of  134 developing countries). In general, in the case of Brazil, becoming a Member of the OECD will depend on many adjustments; some of them not achievable in a short period of time. Nevertheless, it is important to remark that Brazil is an OECD partner (not a Member) since the 1990s, and it has already signed several agreements with OECD and adopted many of its codes of good practices. 

22 May, 2021. Participating in the Conference on Biodiversity Law and Governance. An event that counted with very good inputs from experts from all continents and presented issues related to transformative changes to take place in domestic and global scenarios.

17 May, 2021. Participating in a very good lecture by Judge Ida Caracciolo, from the International Tribunal of the Seas, on The regime of international straits: freedoms, rights and obligations at stake", organized by Dr. Meagan Wong and Dr. Emily Jones, University of Essex Law Series. 

6-7 May, 2021. Participating in the Conference "State of the Union. Europe in a Changing World". Multilateralism. Democracy. COVID19. Climate Change. Global Economy and much more.  Great event organized by the European Union Institute - Florence. 2.000 Participants. World leaders, such as Dr. Ngozi (WTO), Isabelle Durant (UNCTAD), other recognized policy-makers and scholars, besides representatives from non-European countries (Japan, China, USA and others). A democratic and up-to-date atmosphere! 

6 May, 2021. Participating in another Webinar of University of Essex, organized by Dr Meagan Wong, which had  Prof. Tanzi as guest-speaker on the subject of "A Common but Differentiated Law of International Adjudication" and Dr. Nilufer Oral for the debate. Very good lecture! Excellent presentation of a comparative study on adjudication by different tribunals.

5 May, 2021. Particiating in another edition of  CAMEntrepreneurs, which gathered together stakeholders from different countries interested in issues of International Business and business-related best practices and actions. Very interactive event! In November, we will have the  CAMEntrepreneurs Brazil. Don't miss our future posts!

4 May, 2021. Participating in event organized by  IBDFAM-ES/Brazil. The guest-speaker was the Judicial Mediator Mrs. Andreza Peticacis, from the State of Delaware - US, who presented a comparative framework of practical issues on Family Law in the US and in Brazil. Mrs. Peticacis explained to the participants that, in Delaware, Mediation is responsible for almost 70% of dispute settlements in different issues of Family Law.  

29 April 2021. Today, I participated in a great debate organized by the Harvard Law School, on Investments-State Dispute Settlement, when the main discussion is on Sustainable Foreign Direct Investments. In the debate, the main speakers were Ms. Wendy Miles QC, one of the word´s leading experts in energy, climate and natural resources related international arbitration, and Mr. Ko-Yung Tung, lecturer at Harvard Law School, fomer General Counsel and Vice President of the World Bank and as the Secretary General of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), moderated by Prof. Jorge. E. Vinuales, Harold Samuel Professor of Law and Environmental Policy at Cambridge Law School.

29 April 2021. I also participated today of the Health and Human Rights Law and Governance Experts Panel 2021  Advancing Health, Human Rights and Pandemic Recovery through Law and Governance Innovation. 

22 April 2021. Participanting in the Conference on the Implementation Committee of the UNECE Water Convention. Great panels. Great organization by UCL (University College of London).

23 March 2021. WTO AID FOR TRADE.

Today, I participated in the live section of the first Aid for Trade chaired by Dr Ngozi as DG of WTO. Great event! My transcription of some of the panelists' contributions:
Dr Ngozi (WTO): "We need to get equitable access fast to vaccines for developing countries... I do not oppose waiver... but I see a third option on the table: dialogue between producing countries and developing countries... not to undermine IP rights and the costs of research and production... The WTO can help in opposing to export restrictions of countries and we are talking to producing countries on not raising restrictions... Trade can allow supply chains of vaccines to move smoothly... It is not a matter of assistance; it is a matter of dealing with the pandemic in a faster way..."
Angel Guria (OECD): "We have to re-organize the production and distribution of vaccines in a way that vaccines go not only to OECD countries, but to all..."
Isabell Durant (UNCTAD): "We lost loved ones... we lost freedom to move... In order to make recovery, we need Trade... for scaling up production of vaccines... But there are challenges... Inequalities in developing countries... We need to foster access to finance development and recovery... Transfer of technology for vaccines must be taken into account..."

Very honoured to have written chapter 45, on "Law, Finance and Development", of the Encyclopedia of Law and Development (2021), just published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This very important work edited by K. Feyter, G. Turkelli, and S. Moerloose, with the participation of more than 80 scholars from different parts of the world, is an indispensable resource that highlights the role of law as an instrument to promote development. The Encyclopedia is available at the EE Publishing site. Andreia C Vieira