Eduardo OTEIZA

Kobe, 4 November 2019

Dear colleagues and friends,

It is a great honor to have been proposed as President by the Council and the Presidium of the International Association of Procedural Law. At a personal level, I am filled with deep emotion and sincere gratitude for the fact that you have deposited in me the responsibility of heading up the IAPL.

However, this is not an individual challenge but rather a collective commitment. The Council, respecting our by-laws, has decided that the Presidium for the next four years is to be made up as follows: Fernando Gascón Inchausti, as Executive Secretary-General, Masahiko Omura, Vice-president for Asia, Richard Marcus, Vice-president for North America, Burkhard Hess, Vice-president for Europe, Luis Guilherme Marinoni, Vice-president for Latin America and Frédérique Ferrand, Margaret Woo and Remo Caponi as the secretary-general. I could hardly be in better company. It is a real privilege to have the opportunity to work with them for the next four years, and I thank them for accepting the challenge of working together for the benefit of our Association. The decision-making process of the Presidium is, in many ways, horizontal. There is a deep sense of respect and equality among the members. We give great importance to sound arguments, friendship, and relations of cooperation.

Professor Fernando Gascón Inchausti read us the status report of the Association prepared by professor Cadiet, which began by expressing  his disappointment at being unable to join us in person. I must add that we are very sorry he is not with us today. We hope he will soon overcome the health issues preventing him from travelling. His work as Executive Secretary, since Salvador de Bahía, in 2007, and later as President in Heidelberg, in 2011, endowed the IAPL with new momentum. With the support of Marcel Storme, Federico Carpi, and Peter Gotwald, he spearheaded a generational transition that made it possible to respond to the challenges posed when the IAPL amended the Bylaws in 2011, forming a new presidium to bring about change with continuity.

Many initiatives have been adopted since 2011, but the values underpinning the IAPL since 1950 have always been faithfully respected. At the end of his report, Cadiet said that one of his duties was to advise the Council on the path to follow in order to ensure the future of the IAPL in the immediate term. He suggested that the fact of the IAPL’s global expansion made it advisable to think that the presidency should be moved to Latin America.

There is an essential symbolic meaning underlying Cadiet’s perspective. In 1950, the committee in charge of establishing the IAPL was composed of nine professors, five from Europe, and four from America. The first congress, where our founding members discussed the creation of the IAPL, was held in Florence in 1950, but the by-laws were adopted in Mexico in 1972. Among the Latin American procedural experts with the greatest influence on our history, I could mention Eduardo J. Couture, Hernando Devis Echandia, Enrique Vescovi, Héctor Fix Zamudio, Cipriano Gomez Lara, José Carlos Barbosa Moreira, Ada Pellegrini Grinover and Augusto Mario Morello. All of them contributed to the robust development of our Association. Today, there are several very active young Latin American proceduralists, as we were able to appreciate during the different sessions of this congress and the call for papers. 

In assuming the responsibility proposed by the Council from my Latin American heritage, I a paying homage to the importance of respect for diversity. It is in our differences, in the development of tolerance, in the desire for equality, and in serious academic work, that we find sound bases for growth as a scientific society committed to the improvement of justice. Taking the path of complementarity and pluralism enriches the IAPL and displays its global and integrating character.

Let me return, for a few minutes, to my experience as a Presidium member.  During the last eight years, together with Manuel Ortells, Teresa Arruda Alvim and Fernando Gascón Inchausti, who were our executive secretaries, as well as Michele Taruffo, Vice-president for Europe, Masahisa Deguchi and Masahiko Omura, the Vice-presidents for Asia, Oscar Chase and Richard Marcus, the Vice-presidents for North America, and Burkhard Hess, our treasurer, together with Janet Walker and Neil Andrews, the Secretary-general as well as our honorary presidents Marcel Storme, Federico Carpi and Peter Gotwald made up a committed group dedicated to driving the growth of the IAPL.

Those were intensive years during which we achieved major goals. Worth mentioning among them is the fact that two World Congresses were organized: Istanbul (2015), and the one we are now enjoying, thanks to the dedicated work of professor Koichi Miki. Also worthy of mention are colloquia held in Moscow (2012), Athens (2013), Seoul (2014), Bogota (2016) and Tianjin (2017) as well as two International Conferences organized together with the Ibero-american Institute of Procedural Law, first in Buenos Aires (2012) and then in Salamanca (2018). Looking forward, and, as a result of the superior scientific level of our meetings, we are working on the organization of the Colloquium to be held in Porto Alegre (2020), Örebro (2021) and the Ivory Coast (2022) as well as our next World Congress in Lima (2023). All these activities were planned following our House rules on guidelines for congresses, colloquia and other kinds of academic meetings, approved in 2012. These rules provided a framework of predictability for us to develop our relations with the local organizers of each of our congresses.

We are also working on the fourth edition of the post-doctoral Summer School. As already mentioned, the three previous editions were held in Luxembourg, at the Max Planck Institute, thanks to the incomparable hospitality of my dear friend, professor Burkhard Hess. The summer schools have always attracted highly qualified young proceduralists and guest professors, intense and fruitful debates, as reflected in the three volumes published by the Nomos publishing house.

In my opinion, the idea of the inter-generational dialogue developed during the summer school sessions is particularly enriching. Chronological age is but a relative limit, as shown by Roscoe Pound and Giuseppe Chiovenda. The former, at 36, presented us with his now-famous lecture: The causes of popular dissatisfaction with the administration of Justice, while Chiovenda, at 34, gave a conference on Procedural reforms and schools of modern thought. For neither was youth a limit to talent. On the contrary, thanks to their bold thinking, new horizons began to be taken into account.

Nevertheless, the exchange of points of view between generations has certainly proved to be a hallmark of our Association. The summer school provides a fascinating space for mutual personal growth, a place where professional and personal relationships can be strengthened, forming the pillars for the development of future academic projects.

The Istanbul World Congress was the occasion of the award of Cappelletti prize, a second edition of which had already been awarded. The jury, chaired by professor Richard Marcus, and with the participation of Frédérique Ferrand, Remo Caponi, Álvaro Pérez Ragone and Masahisa Deguchi carefully examined the works competing for the prize and delivered the result of its deliberations.  Once again, we would like to thank the jury for its in-depth examination of the works submitted in the various IAPL languages. In Salamanca, the Storme prize was awarded within a similar framework. As our former president pointed out, our Journal has notched up a total of seventeen volumes since 2011 and we are currently discussing how to achieve the full recognition of its scientific merits. The Assembly has just approved the amendment to our by-laws, which envisages a major step forward from the institutional viewpoint.

Some of my references above repeat the information provided by our former president: the purpose of this repetition is to underscore the work performed thanks to professor Cadiet’s leadership. I also hope that we will be able to continue to draw on the valuable cooperation of our esteemed former presidents Federico Carpi and Peter Gotwald, from whom we have learned so much, and of the honorary members of the Presidium and of the Council. I am sure we will miss the company of Janet Walker and Michele Taruffo at the Presidium. We extend to them our profound gratitude for the work they have carried out during the last eight years.

 

Now, from a different and more personal point of view, I wanted to share with you the following. Some years ago, while researching the track record of our first president Alcalá Zamora y Castillo, I found an article he published in 1944, when he was a professor at my University, owing to the fact that he had to go into exile after the Spanish Civil War. The title of the article is “Project for the creation of an Association or an Institute of International Procedural Law”. In it, he describes his first meeting with James Goldschmidt in 1936 at the University of Valencia (Spain) where he proposed the creation of an International Association. At the time, Alcalá Zamora was just 30 and James Goldschmidt, 62. According to Alcalá Zamora, that first attempt was scotched as they were both exiles. Goldschmidt had had to flee, first from Germany, and later from Spain as he was a Jew, before seeking refuge in Montevideo, where he died in 1940. Alcalá Zamora’s journey and long exile took him first to Argentina and later to Mexico. However, it was at that 1936 meeting that the first idea of creating our association was born, one echoed later in Florence, at the congress of the Italian Association in September 1950.

This was when an initial committee, made up of five Europeans: Carnacini, Redenti, Schönke, Schima and Fairén Guillén, and four Americans: Alcalá Zamora, Millar, Couture and Tasso, was set up to create an International Institute of Procedural Law. Alcalá Zamora’s efforts were rewarded at the 1972 Mexico Congress. It is surprising, as we look back—or maybe not—to see that Alcalá Zamora was not part of a group of Europeans. Perhaps at that moment he preferred to align himself with Latin America because of his exile. The fact that the first president of our association should have been a professor of my own university, is however a coincidence that I find surprising.

In 1987 I attended the 8th IAPL World Congress held in Utrecht, chaired by Mauro Cappelletti. I clearly recall the force of his closing address at the Congress. Soon after Utrecht, I was lucky enough to have Cappelletti direct a research project I conducted for a year at the European University Institute, and for him to transmit to me his enthusiasm for the huge potential of the IAPL concerning the key value of access to justice and its various dimensions.

At the closing of the 10th World Congress held in Taormina in 1995, when Marcel Storme, took office as president, he recalled that in 1976, Mauro Cappelletti had been his guest in Ghent. The relationship between Cappelletti and Storme and the support of the then-secretary general, Vittorio Denti, propelled the Association on a new course. At the 6th Ghent Congress (1978) and the 7th Congress in Würzburg (1983), Cappelletti and Storme, supported by Carpi and Gotwald, effectively picked up the baton from the generation of Alcalá Zamora, Redenti, Carnacini and so many others. At the 14th Heidelberg World Congress, a change in continuity was discussed, one referring to the IAPL’s ability to allow successive generations of proceduralists to give of their best in strengthen efforts to improve justice in each era, marked by social, cultural, political and economic requirements.

Our continuity bears testament to the soundness of specific and basic values that have marked our institutional life over time, such as democratic ideas, solidarity, aspirations of equality, and the search for justice with a human face.

Once more, thank you very much for the vote of confidence. We will do our best to measure up to those who preceded us. We are grateful to share in their friendship, dreams, values and feelings.

 

 

 

Loïc CADIET
Heidelberg, le 29 juillet 2011

1. First of all I want to apologize for not speaking German but Frédérique Ferrand spoke so well German Wednesday that she spoke for two.
The General Assembly of the International Association made me yesterday the great honour to appoint me as its new president.
I do not know whether it is a good idea or not but I shall do my best not to disappoint your trust and to fulfill all the duties that this honour requires.
I shall do it with your indispensable help as we ever did. You did not elect a single man but a group, I must say a team and I may say a wonderful team. I know I can count on the support of Oscar Chase, Michele Taruffo, Masahisa Deguchi, Eduardo Oteiza, Janet Walker, Neil Andrews, Burkhard Hess and Manuel Ortells Ramos, as well as yours and especially the help of the members of the Council that we decided to bring from 20 to 25 in order to improve its representativeness and particularly make more room for female colleagues as well as young colleagues.
The history of our Association is the history of a collective challenge. Generation after generation for over sixty years, since the association was founded in Florence, we are writing together this history like a novel chain.
I will note hide my emotion. I measure the weight of the responsibility entrusted to me.
I measure it when I look to the past so well told by Federico Carpi in Ghent some years ago, when I remember the name of Enrico Redenti, Niceto Alcalà-Zamora y Castillo, Mauro Cappelletti, Marcel Storme, Federico Carpi and Peter Gottwald, all these prominent personalities who ruled our association. All of them with their colleagues of the presidium and the council worked hard, most often at their own expenses, investing a lot of time and energy in the preparation of the congresses, the edition of the booklet, the development of the membership, and so many other tasks. A special thanks here to the honorary members of the presidium: especially José Carlos Barbosa Moreira, Ada Pellegrini Grinover, Yasuhei Taniguchi and Keith Uff. Thanks to them and thanks to the colleagues who accepted and who will accept to organize so important world congresses and regional conferences. Thank you so much Burkhard, all your colleagues of the Organizing Committee without forgetting your administrative team, especially Henriette Beisel, without forgetting Ms Hess because I know how the organization of such a congress requires times and energy to the detriment of family life. Thanks to you, thanks to them the Association has been consolidated over the years, has spread throughout the world and has increased its activities. Today our association has nearly four hundred members worldwide, representing more than 50 countries. I did not personally know Redenti, Alcalà-Zamora, Cappelletti but I had the chance to work very close to Marcel Storme, who was president when I became a member of the association and a member of the council, then to Federico Carpi and Peter Gottwald when I became Executive Secretary General. I learned a lot from them. I hope that I will be able in my turn to transmit the memory and the invaluable knowledge they generously gave me.
2. También se midió el peso de las responsabilidades que me han confiado, cuando miro hacia el futuro. En el mensaje que escribió al fin de Junio, Federico Carpi nos dice que el futuro está en nuestras manos et que debemos asegurar el cambio en la continuidad. Creo que sí, en la composición como en las actividades de nuestra Asociación.
Considerando su composición, la continuidad es la presencia en el presídium de nuestros colegas Michele Taruffo, Oscar Chase y Masahisa Deguchi; es la presencia en el consejo de nuestros colegas José Roberto Dos Santos Bedaque, Frédérique Ferrand, Moon-hyuk Ho, Miklós Kengyel, Dimitri Maleshin, Vytautas Nekrošius, Walter H. Rechberger, Rolf Stürner, Piet Taelman, Alan Uzelac, Garry D. Watson.
El cambio es la llegada en el presidium de nuestros colegas Janet Walker, Neil Andrews, Burkhard Hess, Manuel Ortells Ramos y Eduardo Oteiza. En este presidium, los vice-presidentes son Oscar Chase (America del Norte), Masahisa Deguchi (Asia), Eduardo Oteiza (America latina) and Michele Taruffo (Europe); Neil Andrews, Burkhard Hess, Manuel Ortells Ramos and Janet Walker componen el Secretariat-General, Manuel Ortells Ramos volviendo Secretario general ejecutivo y Burhard Hess Tesorero de la Asociacion despues de un corto periodo de transicion.
El cambio es tambien la llegada en el consejo de nuestros colegas Teresa Armenta Deus, Teresa Arruda Alvim Wambier, Paolo Biavati, Remo Caponi, Laura Ervo, Fernando Gascon Inchausti, Angela Ester Ledesma, Richard Markus, Remco van Rhee and Michael Stürner.
Considerando, en segundo lugar, sus actividades, la continuidad es primero y principalmente la fidelidad a los principios que llevaron a la formación de la asociación en las secuelas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Escuchamos lo que decía Piero Calamandrei en su informe final del primero congreso mundial de derecho procesal civil en Florencia, del 30 de setiembre al 3 de octubre de 1950: “El estudio, considerado como misión y como cooperación humana nos trae ese gran apoyo que hemos experimentado hasta aquí, incluso durante el congreso. Es esta perennidad, este nexo que es constante entre los hombres, incluso a lo largo de los períodos en los cuales las armas alcanzan las barreras más salvajes. Y aún cuando la guerra parece dividir los pueblos con brutalidad, por encima de la contienda, los libros continúan sin saberlo su coloquio a distancia. Esta fraternidad, esta solidaridad persisten a pesar y contra todo, en los cielos del espíritu”. Nuestra responsabilidad es alimentar entre todos los procesalistas del mundo, en el respeto mutuo de sus diferencias, el fuego de la solidaridad, cooperación y amistad a fin de promover une justicia más humana y más democrática, una tutela jurisdiccional más eficaz respetando el derecho a un juicio justo. Nuestra asociación debe seguir siendo una gran familia, donde los mismos ideales de justicia deben ser más fuertes que las afiliaciones nacionales, políticas o religiosas. En nuestra casa común, no hay espacio para nacionalismo, extremismo, xenofobia, intolerancia.
En este espíritu, la continuidad es tambien la organizacion de las conferencias el ano proximo en Buenos Aires, en Junio, y Moscu en septiembre; en 2013 en Grecia, en 2014 en Corea del Sur, pues la preparacion del decimoquinto congreso mundial por lo cual nuestra associacion tiene buenos contactos, especialmente con colegas de Turquia. En los proximos meses podremos darles más informaciones. Muchissimas gracias a nuestros amigos OTEIZA, MALESHIN, KLAMARIS, y HO. También vamos a hacer esfuerzos para desarrollar la asociación en el mundo donde todavía no existe o existe poca: África, Medio Oriente, Asia central y China.
En cuanto al cambio, es principalmente de dotarnos de nuevas herramientas de desarrollo. Ya hemos empezado con la modernización durante este congreso de los estatutos de la asociación, con la creación de nuestra revista internacional de derecho procesal cuyo primer número fue publicado por Intersentia hace unos días. Muchas gracias para Marcel Storme para su iniciativa, su implicación y su determinación en este ámbito. Vamos a seguir con el diseño de una página web dinámica e interactiva por la cual nuestro colega y amigo Eduardo Oteiza tiene algunas ideas. Nuestra actividad también debe tratar de avanzar en nuevas direcciones, especialmente en dirección de los jóvenes procesalistas que son el futuro de nuestra asociación. Tenemos que encontrar la manera de hacerles participar más de cerca a nuestras actividades: por ejemplo crear une rubrica “Joven procesalista” en nuestra revista, organizar encuentros doctorales y post-doctorales, quizás entregar un premio a los mejores jóvenes procesalistas. Claro que no es fácil pero el movimiento se demuestra andando. Otra dirección podría ser la institución de comisiones permanentes, que serian grupos de trabajo abiertos a todos los miembros de la asociación sobre una base voluntaria, dedicados a cuestiones particulares como, por ejemplo, la terminología procesal. Los congresos y las conferencias no deben ser nuestro único horizonte. Podemos, debemos probar estas pistas aun que sea modestamente, trabajando juntos. Somos abiertos a todas las ideas. Roma ha necesitado mucho tiempo para que sea Roma. Nuestra asociación también necesita mucho tiempo. Sus Remus y Romulus se llamaban Enrico Redenti, Hans Schima, Adolf Schönke, Victor Fairén-Guillen, Robert Wyness Millar, Niceto Alcalà Zamora, Oscar de Cunha y Eduardo Couture.
3. Mais, dans l’immédiat, c’est un autre chemin que nous allons emprunter, demain, celui de Strasbourg, et puisque l’occasion m’est offerte aujourd’hui de m’exprimer dans ma langue maternelle, ce dont je remercie chaleureusement les organisateurs du congrès, je souhaite pouvoir vous dire un mot de Strasbourg, pour deux raisons.
La première est que je souhaite rassurer Burkhard qui, lundi dernier, lors de la séance d’ouverture du congrès s’inquiétait, avec délicatesse, que le choix d’organiser une visite à Strasbourg à la suite d’un congrès ayant lieu à Heidelberg soit mal compris. Il n’y a aucune raison qu’elle le soit. Qu’il se rassure. Strasbourg est certes située en France mais Strasbourg est une ville européenne, à la fois siège d’institutions de l’Union européenne et du Conseil de l’Europe. L’européanité de Strasbourg est inscrite dans son paysage, dans ses monuments, dans les gens qui y vivent, dans les langues qu’on y entend, dans le droit qu’on y enseigne à la faculté.
Ce qui me conduit à la deuxième raison de parler de Strasbourg et cette fois-ci c’est à Herbert Kroncke que je ferai référence. Lundi dernier, notre collègue nous a expliqué les bonnes raisons qu’il y avait de considérer qu’Heidelberg était un bon choix pour ce 14ème congrès de l’AIDP et, au nombre de ces raisons, figuraient les noms des grands professeurs de droit international et de droit processuel ayant enseigné à Heidelberg depuis sa création. Il ne m’en voudra pas si j’ajoute à sa liste le nom d’un professeur de droit civil de cette belle université, un professeur de droit civil bien connu des juristes français, dont l’œuvre a été popularisée en France au 19ème siècle par deux professeurs de droit civil de la faculté de droit de Strasbourg qui, par la suite, écriront leur propre traité qui deviendra, pendant plusieurs décennies, la source d’inspiration principale de la Cour de cassation dont ils seront devenus membres. A cette époque du 19ème siècle, le code Napoléon était encore applicable dans cette partie de l’Europe et ce professeur allemand en avait fait le commentaire selon une méthode nouvelle que suivront à leur tour les deux professeurs français. Ce professeur d’Heidelberg est Karl-Salomo Zachariae et ces deux professeurs de Strasbourg sont Charles Aubry et Charles Rau. Il se trouve que le Cours de droit civil français d’après la méthode de Zachariae d’Aubry et Rau comportait deux parties, une première partie intitulée Droit civil théorique français et une deuxième partie intitulée Droit civil pratique français, dans laquelle Aubry et Rau traitaient de l’action et des exceptions, de l’autorité de la chose jugée, de la preuve et de la prescription, qui sont aussi des questions de procédure civile où se manifeste le plus la dialectique du droit substantiel et du droit processuel, ce qui nous ramène à l’objet de notre congrès et me conduit en même temps au point final de mon intervention
Gracias por su atención
Thank you for attention.
Et rendez-vous à Buenos-Aires, puis à Moscou.

 


Peter GOTTWALD
2010
Dear members and friends,
In these times of economic and political turbulences the IAPL is flourishing. After a long and very successful time Marcel Storme being president we are yet in a certain time of transition, as in a very natural way a younger generation shall and will take over and run the business of the IAPL step by step.
This transition is apparent with the office of the president. The last “president’s letter” of 2009 originated by Federico Carpi, and now, since September 2009 the turn to preside is with me, the youngest elected to the presidium in 1995. Our Honorary President Marcel Storme can celebrate his 80th birthday this summer. Federico Carpi completed the 70th year of his life in January. I myself have passed the age of 65.
Federico Carpi was a highly esteemed, very diligent Secretary General and likewise an impressive President. In the name of all of us and personally I would like to thank him (and his wife Paola) very warmly for his great personal engagement in favour of the IAPL over such a long period.
In his letter of 2009 Federico reminded all of us of the respectable history of our Association and was perfectly right to hail again all great scientists who took directly part in the life of the IAPL. Who wants to learn about famous teachers of procedural law from the fifties to the first decade of the 21st century is kindly invited to read again Federico’s appealing report.
Like him I feel much honored to become president after 14 years serving as secretary general. I am very happy and grateful about this.
Main concern of my presidency will be to intensify our efforts to improve the transnational cooperation between lawyers and the exchange of legal information which are the basic objects of our association as well as encouraging young scholars from all over the world to engage in this cooperation.
Since 1978 the papers of our World Congresses and of all interim conferences are published and form a very remarkable library of comparative procedural law. We are, however, still lacking a constant platform for the exchange of ideas which is open to all members and not just to a limited number of conference reporters. On a first suggestion by Stefan Leible and on particular effort of Marcel Storme the IAPL is now going to launch a new multilingual “International Journal of Procedural Law”. This journal shall be published twice a year by Intersentia Publishers, Belgium, with Lo?c Cadiet and me as editors-in-chief together with an excellent team of editors, assistant editors and senior advisers. The journal shall contain articles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The first number shall be published in spring 2011. As our journal shall be a real common international forum all of you are kindly invited to submit their proposals to the general editors. To ensure a high quality all articles are subject to a severe peer review before they are accepted for publication. I am confident that our common efforts will lead the journal to success, becoming soon a leading review of procedural law in an international context.
In addition, we shall improve the website of the IAPL, in particular convert it into a technically independent platform of the IAPL.
In the meantime both conferences which were announced in the last president’s letter have been held with great success. Manuel Ortells Ramos (together with his team) has perfectly organized his conference in October 2008 in Gandia and Valencia in Spain. Already at the conference he could present two volumes on “Oral and written proceedings: Efficiency in civil procedure” (ed. together with Federico Carpi) and one volume on”Appeals to Supreme Courts in Europe”. Janet Walker and Oscar Chase (also together with their team) could likewise offer a brilliant conference in June 2009 in Toronto. The papers presented there were only recently published with LexisNexis in a well edited book titled “Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories.” Many thanks again to all who contributed to the success of both conferences.
This year we are looking ahead very soon to the Pécs conference on “Electronic Justice – Present and Future”, September 23-25, 2010, organized by Miklos Kengyel. The conference is devoted to all innovations and changes which the introduction or, should I say, invasion of the modern electronic information technology will lead us to in the civil justice system. Pécs is a remarkable city in southern Hungary worthwhile to be visited as it is one of the cultural capitals of Europe of this year.
Next year, 25-30 July 2011, the XIV World Congress of Procedural Law will take place in Heidelberg (Germany), locally organized by Burkhard Hess within the celebrations of the 625th anniversary of the Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg. After many years of focusing the efficiency of civil justice the congress is devoted to the core of our activities, namely realizing “Procedural Justice”. All members of the IAPL are kindly invited to participate in this event in the romantic city of Heidelberg.
For 2012 I can even announce two conferences: one in spring in Argentina organized by Eduardo Oteiza on behalf the Argentine Association of Procedural Law and the Iberoamerican Institute of Procedural Law on class actions and a second one in Moscow (Russia) organized by Dmitri Maleshin of Lomonossov University on “Civil Procedure in Eurasia in cross-cultural dialogue”. We are very happy that it is possible to have such conferences for the first time in both countries.
This letter shall not end without many thanks to all members of the presidium for their kind cooperation, in particular to our Executive Secretary General Lo?c Cadiet, for the amicable handling of our everyday business and for the preparation of this new edition of the Membership’s list.
Concluding this letter I kindly request all members to use the offered possibilities of scholarly and personal contact and exchange, to present their ideas within the forum of the IAPL, to encourage young scholars who are interested in international cooperation to participate in the activities of the IAPL and to nominate them to become new members.

 


Federico CARPI
2009
Dear Members and Friends,
It’s hard to explain how it's possible to have such conflicting feelings: on one hand gratitude for your vote of confidence in appointing me President and on the other hand anxiety about deserving it and being able to fulfil all the tasks that this honour requires.
I am relieved if I think that I will carry out the President’s functions as a “dispatch rider” with Peter Gottwald and that I can count on the support of Ada Pellegrini Grinover, Oscar Chase, Masahisa Deguchi, Loïc Cadiet, Michele Taruffo, as well as yours.
My thoughts go to the masters that came before me: Enrico Redenti, Niceto Alcalà Zamora y Castillo, Mauro Cappelletti as well as, of course, Marcel Storme. And to all the members that did so much for our association, including organising the world congresses and the colloquiums that were so important for the development of comparison in civil procedural law
I am thinking of José Carlos Barbosa Moreira and Yashuei Taniguchi, for many years vice – presidents of our association, always present at our meetings notwithstanding the long trips they had to face in order to bring precious advice on the choice of subject and speakers of the congresses; I am thinking of Walter Habsheid, Pessoa Vaz, Ulla Jacobsson and Sir Jack Jacob, Wedekind, Pelaya Yessiou-Faltsi, Walter Rechberger, Kostantinos Kerameus, Italo Andolina, Mieczyslaw Sawczuk and many others amongst whom I can’t forget professor Sherman and Professor Yannopulos who hosted us in New Orleans, nor can I forget Tony Jolowicz, Vittorio Denti, Augusto Morello, Jacques Normand and Roger Perrot and above all dear Cipriano Gomez Lara who left us after all his great efforts in organising the XII word congress in Mexico. And then also our Japanese colleagues and the congress they organised: first Takeshi Kojima in Tokyo and then Masahisa Deguchi in Kyoto in 2006.
In these years the difficult work of secretary was shared with Peter Gottwald and Keith Uff and it is also thanks to them that the association has grown stronger and bigger, with more or less 350 members worldwide. The membership booklet you will be provided with is evidence of this.
The Executive Secretary, Prof. Loïc Cadiet has arranged this booklet: let me express our gratitude to him for his magnificent work.
But it is especially thanks to the great commitment, work and enthusiasm of Marcel Storme, who is now the Honorary President, that the association has developed throughout the whole world, as the last world-wide congress held in Salvador de Bahia has demonstrated. That congress was due to the impeccable organisation of Ada Pellegrini Grinover, of Petronio Calmon Filho and their collaborators, whom we once again thank.
I am certain that the future will bring a further development of co-operation both in the professional field and in friendly relations among us all.
The colloquium on “Oral and written proceedings: efficiency in procedure” that will be held in Valencia from 6th to 8th November 2008 is now ready, thanks to Prof. Manuel Ortells Ramos.
Then we will have the colloquium scheduled for June 3-6 2009 in Toronto, on which I am already working with Oscar Chase, Janet Walker and Collem Hanycz, with the constant presence, I imagine, of Garry Watson; the general topic will be “Neither Common nor Civil: Procedural Reform and the need for New Categories”.
Furthermore: in 2010 there is a proposal for a colloquium in Pecs, Hungary; in 2011 the XIV world congress will be in Berlin and Neil Andrews has proposed a colloquium in Cambridge.
It is because of the organisation of these events that we should express our great satisfaction with all achievements that facilitate the exchange of research and knowledge amongst experts from all over the world.
This can add significantly to the future of one of the noblest human activities, the development of justice, to meet the demands of the modern State and to guarantee effective protection, at constitutional and sovranational level, of human fundamental rights.
Maintaining mutual knowledge, the observance of the law, the sense of affiliation to a great family – as our Association has been well defined – may contribute to the attempt to defeat extremism and all abuses. In the last analysis, it could lead to preserving that supreme good, stamped on too often, that is peace, the respect of rights and their jurisdictional protection.
Concluding his report to the Lund Colloquium, with regard to the spirit of our Association Mauro Cappelletti noted that: “It is an open association of scholars; open, that is, to procedural law scholars of all countries, of all races, of all creeds, with no bars or discrimination.
Being a scholarly association does not mean insulation from all actual life.
We are scholars who deal with the law, and the law is, of course, itself a political phenomenon, indeed a very crucial reality of societal life.”
These are words that I think are the best ones still today.
As we can see the foundations of the International Association of Procedural Law are strong: vivat, floreat, crescat!

 


Marcel STORME
Ghent, 16 January 2007
It is not without a certain nostalgia that I add a short foreword to the issue of our booklet containing the names of the members of our worldwide association which now appears once again through the good offices of Federico Carpi.
It was indeed 30 years ago, in 1976, that on the occasion of the10th anniversary of the Belgian Code of Judicial Procedure (1967-1977) in Ghent I conceived the idea of organizing a worldwide symposium on procedurallaw with the title: Towards a Justice with a Human Face.
We were overwhelmed by the tremendous success of this event , which brought no fewer than 300 participants from 50 countries to Ghent.
In the preparation of this first World Congress, I was able to rely on the unstinted support of our much-lamented former President, Mauro Capelletti, and our equally mourned former Secretary-General, Vittorio Denti.
The tone was set, followed at once by the breakthrough of the scientific and comparative-law approach to procedural law, but now on a world scale – in the footsteps of the International Association of Procedural Law launched in Florence in 1948.
In the early stages, it was difficult to find a location where the next World Congress could be held. Finally, it was our colleague Walther Habscheid who took upon himself the organization of the event in the magnificent city of Würzburg.
Since then we have organized large-scale Congresses every four years: successively at Utrecht, Coimbra, Taormina , Vienna and Mexico. We also managed to fit in an Extraordinary Congress in Bologna on the occasion of the 9OOth anniversary of the establishment there of the oldest university
Symposia of more modest proportions have also been organized in various locations, namely Lund, Lublin, Thessalonica, New Orleans, Ghent, Brussels, Coimbra, Paris/Dijon, Vienna/Budapest, Kyoto.
During the forthcoming World Congress in Salvador de Bahia, the Presidium that has been in office since Taormina (1995) will resign in a body.
Some members of the Presidium have agreed to take up office again together with a number of new members to be elected in Salvador de Bahia.
Thus a new era will come to an end; the era of Niceto Alcala Zamora y Aragon, the era of Mauro Cappelletti and the era of the current Presidium will be followed by a new era which will see the continuity of our world-renowned Association.
There are few tasks of the law which would appear to be so intimately linked to national interests as procedural law. This was consistently underlined in all manuals dealing procedural law in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Such has also been the experience in the European Union, where initially any attempt to harmonize, or at least approximate, procedural law within the Union met with particularly fierce opposition.
This national, in some cases even nationalistic, approach contrasts sharply with the fact there is no branch of law in the world in which the problems are the same everywhere: to ensure access to justice which will be granted in a way which is at the same time affordable, quick and transparent. This is the golden rule which is summarized in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights:” a fair trial within a reasonable time before an impartial and independent judge”.
There can be no doubt that the breakthrough of procedural law on the world forum owed its accomplishment to the pioneering work of the outstanding comparatist in this field, my honoured and illustrious predecessor, Mauro Cappelletti.
His Access to Justice, also his opus magnum, was an awesome eye-opener to the whole world.
With the International Association we have built further on this foundation.
The proceedings of all symposia and Congresses have been published in elegant volumes and in this way made available to procedural law scholars throughout the world.
The import and export of best practices in civil procedural law can no longer be said to be a significant exception, as was evidenced in particular during the most recent symposium in Kyoto.
Now my period in office as President is to be irrevocably terminated at the Salvador de Bahia Congress, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the privilege of having experienced this wonderful international adventure.
Gratitude to my revered predecessor, Mauro Cappelletti, with whom I was able to set up excellent cooperation to the benefit of our Association.
And gratitude to the Presidium currently in office, which since Taormina has invariably and readily devoted its thinking and directed its cooperation to serving the interests of our Association and the well-being of citizens throughout the world.
It is to them that our thoughts have turned each time we have attempted to improve or at least take steps towards improving the operation of judicial institutions, the functioning of process and the rules of procedural law
May all go well with the Presidium that is to be elected in Salvador de Bahia That is the most ardent wish of a grateful International Association President on the brink of retirement.

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