On November 29 and 30, 2010, the legal professions together with the Civil Law Professions International Initiative Organization [French acronym is “ACDI”] (ACDI), held the second Euro-American legal conference dedicated to the various approaches to the formation, operations and challenges faced by the small sized-companies. The objective of the meeting was to enable, on the basis of case studies, an understanding of how European and American jurists approach concrete problems. The conference was held at the offices of the World Bank, in Washington, D.C.

The first round table, led by Mr. Louis-Bernard BUCHMAN, Attorney (Field Fischer Waterhouse LLP), examined together with Mr. Helmut FESSLER, Notary in Krefeld (Germany) and Mr. Gérard LEVAL, Attorney (Arent Fox LLP), the formation of a company and the status of minority shareholders. The second round table, dedicated to the protection of industrial property and of personal data, brought together Mr. Astrid DESAGNEAUX, Bailiff of the Court in Paris, Mr. Joshua KAUFMAN, Attorney, (Venable LLP) and Mr. Christopher MESNOOH, Attorney (Field Fischer Waterhouse LLP). Mario MICCOLI, Notary in Livorno (Italy), Mr. Gérard LEVAL, Mr. DESAGNEAUX and Mr. Stéphane ZECEVIC, Notary in Paris, then discussed the legal aspects of real property investment. Lastly, moderated by Mr. Marc ANDRE, Bankruptcy Trustee in Alès (France), the Honorable Judge Elisabeth STONG (New York, USA) and Ms. Isabelle DIDIER, Court-appointed Administrator in Paris, compared how their respective legal systems treat the problems faced by companies.

 On November 30, 2010, the planned Global Index of Legal Certainty was the subject of a presentation by the head of the Economic Efficiency of the Law - 2ED Program of the Fondation pour le droit continental, Professor Arnaud RAYNOUARD. Other participants included Ms. Anne-Julie KERHUEL, representative of the Fondation in Washington, and Mrs. Maude VALLEE, on behalf of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), partner of Program. After having presented the reasons underlying the research project on legal certainty, the participants described the methodology and the viewpoint of Index of Legal Certainty. The objective is in effect to enable assessing the level of confidence that an economic operator may expect from a given legal system.

The last part of the conference was dedicated to the presentation by Mr. Marc FRILET, Attorney, Secretary General of the French Institute of International Legal Experts - IFEJI, and by Mr. Roger FISZELSON, General Delegate of the European/ International Commission of the French Union of International Contractors, National Federation of Public Works, on the institutional and legal framework of public- private partnerships, especially those involving large infrastructure works having an international scope. On the basis of specific examples, the participants subsequently discussed the criteria for evaluating the success of such projects and the lessons learned from prior projects: participants included Messrs. Jeffrey DELMON and Mark MOSELEY of the World Bank, Mr. Philipe DEWAST, Attorney in Paris, and IFEJI expert, and Mr. Arent VAN WASSENAER, Secretary of the IBA Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law.

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 The contributions of the participants will be published.