[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 173 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46679-46680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-22236]



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[[Page 46680]]


DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice No. 2252]


Notice of Advisory Committee Study Group Meeting on Proposed 
Rules for Secured Interests in International Transactions

    A meeting of a new Study Group on International Secured Interests, 
co-hosted by the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Private 
International Law (ACPIL) and the Subcommittee on International 
Commercial Law, Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association 
(ABA), will be held on Monday, September 18, 1995 in New York at the 
Brooklyn Law School from 9:30-5:00. The focus of the meeting will be on 
various efforts by international organizations and others to establish 
rules for, or unify laws on, secured interests and receivables 
financing in the context of international transactions. A seminar on 
international and domestic credit enhancement will take place the 
following day at Brooklyn Law School, and attendees at the Study Group 
meeting will be invited to the following day's sessions.
    The primary focus for the Study Group will be projects under way at 
UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and 
UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law).
    UNIDROIT, an intergovernmental organization of which the United 
States is a member, is in the process of preparing an initial draft of 
Uniform Rules on the recognition and enforcement of international 
interests in mobile equipment. The proposed Rules will need to define 
what constitutes an international security interest, whether the 
convention itself should create or only recognize such interests, 
whether such interests may secure future as well as present 
obligations, the scope of equipment to be covered, the appropriate 
registry or registries, remedies and enforcement, basic priority rules 
and possibly jurisdiction. Consideration will also be given to drafting 
the rules in the form of a convention (multilateral treaty), rather 
than as a uniform law. UNIDROIT will hold its next drafting session in 
October 1995; the meeting of the Study Group will provide guidance for 
U.S. participants. Documents available include UNIDROIT reports 
contained in Study LXXII, reports of U.S. participants in prior 
preliminary drafting meetings of UNIDROIT, and reports prepared for the 
Aviation Working Group.
    UNCITRAL is in the preliminary stages of drafting model law rules 
on ``receivables financing'', which focuses on the assignment of rights 
to payment for goods and services in a broad range of commercial goods. 
Various types of trade financing mechanisms may be relevant, such as 
secured transactions, factoring, forfeiting, secondary financing, etc. 
The preliminary draft rules cover forms of assignment and transfer of 
security rights, the relationship between assignor and assignee, 
warranties, applicable law, enforcement and defenses, effect of 
assignments toward third parties, and priorities. The rules are 
intended to encompass bulk assignments and general inventory, as well 
as identifiable goods. UNCITRAL will hold its first working group 
meeting on this topic in November, 1995; the meeting of the Study Group 
will provide guidance for U.S. participants. Documents available 
include reports prepared by the UNCITRAL Secretariat on the legal 
aspects of receivables financing, U.N. Docs. A/CN.9/397 and 412.
    Discussion of the above-referenced projects will take into account 
the already completed UNIDROIT conventions on International Financial 
Leasing and International Factoring, both of which are expected to be 
submitted to the U.S. Senate for advice and consent to United States 
ratification.
    The review of these and other international projects will take into 
account proposed revisions to the Uniform Commercial Code which are 
presently under consideration by the National Conference of 
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, as well as work being done by the 
American Law Institute, the American Bar Association and others. In 
addition, the status of other related projects will be discussed, 
including current projects on secured interests laws by the World Bank 
and the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade (CIFT) in 
Tucson, Arizona.
    The meeting will be open to the public up to the capacity of the 
meeting room and all attendees can participate subject to rulings of 
the Chair. The meeting will be held at Brooklyn Law School, 250 
Joralemon Street (downtown Brooklyn), New York 11201. Location of the 
meeting will be posted at the Law School for participants. Persons 
wishing to attend or who want further information should contact Peter 
Winship, International Commercial Law Subcommittee, at (202) 822-8633, 
fax (202) 785-5185, or Harold Burman, Advisory Committee Executive 
Director, (202) 776-8421, fax (202) 776-8482.
    Copies of all documents referred to above can be obtained on 
request from the Advisory Committee. Persons unable to attend the 
meeting may submit their comments in writing to the Advisory Committee 
by fax at (202) 776-8482 or to the Office of the Legal Adviser (L/PIL), 
Suite 203 South Building, 2430 E Street, NW., Washington, DC 20037-
2800. For information on arrangements at Brooklyn Law School, contact 
Judy Cohn at (718) 780-7987, fax (718) 780-0393.

Peter H. Pfund,
Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law, Vice-Chair, 
Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Private International Law.
[FR Doc. 95-22236 Filed 9-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-08-M