The third workshop of the Best Practices in the Field of Electronic Registry Design and Operation

The third workshop of the Best Practices in the Field of Electronic Registry Design and Operation Project was held on 8-9 April 2019 at the headquarters of Unidroit in Rome, Italy.

This project is a joint undertaking between the UNIDROIT Foundation, the Commercial Law Centre of Harris Manchester College at Oxford University, and the Global Business Law Institute at the University of Washington, and is primarily supported by Aviareto. The purpose of the project is to provide guidance on the design and operation of electronic registries. To assess best practice, the project has identified Critical Performance Factors (CPFs) against which electronic registries can be measured. CPFs change depending on the particular registry being evaluated.

The third workshop was chaired jointly by Professor Ignacio Tirado, Secretary-General of Unidroit, and Professor Jeffrey Wool, President of the Unidroit Foundation.  It brought together international stakeholders with expertise in the design, operation and evaluation of different types of electronic registries, including government representatives, officials from regional and intergovernmental organisations, policy makers, private sector experts and academics.

The third workshop, building upon the first and second project workshops, focused upon the application of the best practice standards developed by the project to the design and operation of electronical collateral registries.  Discussion was based on  an extensive case study prepared by Dr Marek Dubovec, Executive Director of the Kozolchyk National Law Center. Participating experts discussed which CPFs were particularly relevant for collateral registries and shared practical experiences in relation to the challenges that arise in the design and operation of such registries. The group identified additional CPFs which could be incorporated into the case study and suggested that the CPFs should be further tested against functioning collateral registries.

The next steps in the project will be to finalise the best practice guide for collateral registries, and  to develop further the general CPF framework applicable to other types of commercial registries. For more information, please contact info@unidroitfoundation.org.