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Bell Gully scholarship winner part of international law conference
Auckland lawyer Andrea Haggitt has returned from a global legal conference as her prize for winning the Corporate Law Association of New Zealand (CLANZ) - Bell Gully Corporate Lawyers Scholarship.
Andrea Haggitt, legal counsel for Air New Zealand, put the $5000 prize package to valuable use by attending the International Bar Association conference in Prague in September. IBA is the global organisation for the legal profession and the Prague conference was attended by 4000 lawyers from around the world.
Andrea says the conference offered a diverse range of topics, and of particular interest to her were the sessions run by the aviation, insurance and antitrust divisions of IBA.
"A hot topic at the conference was the problem of extraterritoriality. In my job at Air New Zealand, we have to take steps to ensure that we comply with laws in the jurisdictions that we fly into - this is a given. But what happens when the laws imposed by another country conflict with our laws in New Zealand?
"A current example is the proposal by the United States to impose its local disabled passenger rights laws on foreign carriers landing in the States. Rather than providing general principles for compliance, the text of the law is so detailed that it would require Air NZ (and just by way of example) to accept snakes on board our aircraft if a disabled passenger required their pet to accompany them," says Andrea.
"Of course, MAF would likely have something to say about that when our aircraft arrived at the gate in Auckland. All silliness aside, it's pretty clear that a foreign sovereign should not be permitted to regulate the activities of businesses in other countries in this way - this would be contrary to that country's right to determine those activities for itself. But yet there are plenty of live examples of states seeking to impose conflicting domestic laws onto foreign businesses, and the result is soaking up tonnes of energy and resources in legal battles at both business and government level."
Andrea says she is grateful to Bell Gully and CLANZ for sponsoring the trip, and providing a great opportunity to discuss issues close to home while enjoying a country far away from it.
"Prague is a terrific city to spend some time in, and there was plenty to see outside of class. One of its more famous landmarks, the Charles Bridge, was full of pedestrians from sunrise until well after midnight. There was no chance to get a photo without throngs of tourists on every side of you unless you did what one bloke did and light a burning stick and then spin it wildly in all directions. That cleared him a little personal space. I think it also earned him some danger money."
The scholarship has now been replaced by the CLANZ-Bell Gully Young Corporate Lawyer Award and will be presented at the 2006 CLANZ Conference in Christchuch on 11-12 May next year.
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 CLANZ-Bell Gully scholarship winner Andrea Haggitt with Bell Gully partner David Flacks (left) and CLANZ president Nic Short |
