Dear
Colleagues:
I would
first like to express my congratulations for your designation as
governmental and independent experts for the preparation of
international instruments on Consumer Protection. Welcome to the
Group of Experts.
Opening of
Preparatory Work: Preparatory work will commence the week of April
3, 2006 with a preliminary discussion of the Draft Convention on
Law Applicable to some Consumer Contracts.
During this
stage, Experts will have the opportunity to present their
preliminary comments to the text of the Convention. In addition to
general and technical comments, it is recommended that
Governmental Experts detail any specific positions of their
Delegations.
Mandate of
the Group of Experts: The Group of Experts has the mandate to
negotiate and draft three Inter-American instruments on Consumer
Protection:
1)
Convention on Choice of Law concerning some Consumer Contracts;
2) Model Law
on Jurisdiction and Conflict of Laws Rules for Consumer Contracts;
and
3) Model Law
on Monetary Redress for Consumer Transactions.
Discussion
Forum: Preparatory work will take place via the CIDIP-VII
Discussion Forum for which each of you has registered.
This Forum
will provide each Expert (whether independent or member of an
official delegation) the opportunity to communicate the official
position of their governments and his or her independent comments
and opinions. The Forum will also provide access to the drafts
convention and model laws subject to negotiation as well as
detailed reports concerning the progress in the negotiations.
The Department of International Law will monitor the Forum, will review all
comments and documents and will draft revised versions of the
documents based on the comments and contributions of the Experts.
Work
Calendar: Work cycles will be managed in discussion rounds, each
one encompassing a complete yet separate discussion of the three
instruments on consumer protection.
The First
Round of discussions will adhere to the following calendar:
1)
Preliminary Discussions on the Convention on Choice of Law (April
3 - 28, 2006);
2)
Preliminary Discussion on the Model La won Jurisdiction (May 1 -
31, 2006)
3)
Article-by-Article discussion of the Convention on Choice of Law
(June 1 - 30, 2006);
4)
Article-by-Article Discussion of the Model La won Jurisdiction
(July 3 -l 28, 2006); and
5) General
Discussion on the Model La won Consumer Redress (August 1 - 31,
2006).
Once the
First Round of Discussion is complete, the Group of Experts will
proceed to draft revised versions of the three instruments on
consumer protection. At that time, a new calendar will be
presented for a Second Round of Discussion (as necessary) of
issues and articles remaining outstanding during the previous
Round. This process will be followed until the completion of
preparatory work on the topic.
Language:
The features and documents of the Forum (with few exceptions) are
in English and Spanish, which will be the languages of the Group
of Experts. Although official documents will be translated, Expert
comments and contributions will appear only in the language in
which they were presented.
Additional
Communications: All communications will preferably take place over
the Discussion Forum. However, specific questions concerning the
technical operation of the forum can be directed to Forum
Webmaster Francisco Montero ([email protected])
and specific questions regarding the topic and procedure can be
directed to the Forum Moderator John Wilson ([email protected]).
[John
Wilson] |