Hager, L. Michael

English

ValpoScholar

Third World Legal Studies
Volume 5 Article 6
1-6-1986
Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLI
Experience
L. Michael Hager
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/twls
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in
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Recommended Citation
Hager, L. Michael (1986) "Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLI Experience," Third World Legal Studies: Vol. 5, Article 6.
Available at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/twls/vol5/iss1/6
TRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE
IDLI EXPERIENCE
L. Michael Hager*
Law is a silent partner in the development process. Economic policies
find expression in statutes, regulations, international agreements and con-
tracts. Thus the legal advisor is a problem-solver, along with other
development specialists. As monitors of fair procurement procedures for
development projects, lawyers can help acquire needed goods and services.
As legislative draftsmen, they can help achieve meaningful law reform.
As international negotiators, they can secure more equitable agreements
for their countries.
A legal framework for international business is fundamental to the
achievement of mutual economic gains. Yet business relationships between
North and South reflect imbalances in negotiating capability as well as
bargaining strength. Developing countries often fail to achieve negotiating
objectives when their representatives must learn the "rules of the game"
at the bargaining table-where the stakes are high and errors costly.
In international commerce, transactions may languish when a devel-
oping country is unprepared to deal with technical legal issues. Because
legal resources have not been fully developed and exploited, developing
countries remain at a disadvantage.
The Brandt Commission on International Development Issues observed
that "developing countries, particularly the smaller and poorer ones, need
to improve their bargaining strength. International bodies, said the Com-
mission, "should be developed to strengthen the capability of developing
countries to negotiate effective and durable agreements." Finally, it ar-
gued, "the terms and procecdres of aid have to be improved and made
more flexible." .
The International Development Law Institute shares the Brandt Com-
mission's vision. The Institute offers a constructive professional approach
to the North-South dialogue.
* Director, International Development Law Institute, Rome, Italy.
THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986
Through its training program, IDLI strives to increase the capability
of Third World lawyers to negotiate effectively in the fields of development
assistance, foreign investment and international trade. At the same time,
the Institute is developing programs to assist lawyers in national law
revision.
1. The International Development Law Institute
In November, 1980, three legal advisors to cooperation agencies then
resident in Cairo, Egypt, first discussed the possibility of establishing a
training center for developing country lawyers. Later, with the assistance
of Dr. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, an internationally-recognized jurist who was
then Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development
in Vienna, the idea of a development law training institute attracted wide
support.
In September, 1982, with a seed money grant from the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), the "IDLI Project"
began. During the next fifteen months, the Institute was legally established
as an international, non-governmental organization, a Board of Directors
appointed and a curriculum developed. In December, 1983, IDLI wel-
comed twenty-three participants from eighteen countries to its first pro-
gram, a two-week seminar on "Negotiating a Petroleum Exploration and
Development Agreement."
IDLI promotes the deployment of legal resources in the resolution of
development issues. Its objective is to help lawyers, primarily legal advisors
to government ministries, play a more constructive role in development.
The Institute offers practical training in negotiation, legal drafting, inter-
national contracting procedures, financing agency rules and national law
revision. Participants are mid-career legal advisors to government minis-
tries, parastatal organizations and companies and private practitioners.
The Institute's ability to respond to practical training needs is evi-
denced by the wide acceptance of its initial programs. In less than five
years, nearly 700 participants (twenty-one percent women) from ninety
countries have attended the Institute's courses and seminars in Rome.
IDLI has received financial support from a variety of multilateral and
bilateral development cooperation agencies, including the Arab Fund for
Economic and Social Development, the Arab Gulf Programme for United
Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), the OPEC Fund for
International Development, the World Bank, and the governments of
Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Sweden
and the United States.
TRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Believing that the private sector also benefits from having more
knowledgeable negotiators on the other side of the bargaining table, IDLI
has invited support from private foundations and corporations. To date,
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the General Electric
Foundation, the Heinz Company Foundation, the International Bar As-
sociation and Levi Strauss & Company have responded with contributions.
In order to enlarge its prospects for voluntary contributions among
European and Asian donor organizations and to make it possible to
conclude a headquarters agreement with the Government of Italy, IDLI
is transforming its legal status from a non-governmental organization to
an inter-governmental organization. On February 5, 1988, eight govern-
ments (France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Senegal, Sudan,
Tunisia and the United States) signed an agreement to establish IDLI as
an international organization.
Although IDLI subject matter is politically sensitive (North-South
commercial negotiations and national law reform), the Institute's lawyer-
to-lawyer approach is professional, technical and non-political. Indeed,
this problem-solving methodology has been successful in attracting as
participants government officials from countries with widely differing
economic and political policies.
In order to avoid politicalization, a scientific and professional Board
of Directors, selected on non-political grounds, will retain primary re-
sponsibility for policy direction. IDLI's Board now numbers twelve,
representing nine nationalities. Dr. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Vice-President
and General Counsel of the World Bank, is Board Chairman. IDLI's
permament staff is similarly international: fifteen persons representing
seven nationalities.
2. Training Program
The Institute's regular training program in Rome consists of two
twelve-week DEVELOPMENT LAWYERS COURSE (DLC) and four INTERNA-
TIONAL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS (IBT) seminars-thirty-two training weeks
in all. Each course and seminar is presented separately in two major
languages of international negotiation, English and French.
The DLC addresses basic legal skills, practical application of those
skills and the lawyer's role in the development process. Learning activities
are structured to help the participants perform more effectively on the
job.
The first four weeks stress development lawyers skills:
- advising governmental "clients";
THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986
- identifying legal issues in project documents;
- negotiating agreements;
- drafting legal documents;
- reviewing and revising agreements;
- monitoring the performance of legal obligations; and
- resolving disputes.
In the remaining weeks, participants apply those skills in three im-
portant subject areas:
- project financing;
- international contracting for goods and services; and
- foreign investment.
The IBT SEMINARS are designed to bridge the legal information gap in
specialized topics selected each year on the basis of developing country
demand. Past seminars have addressed petroleum agreements, international
equipment leasing, construction contracts, dispute resolution, debt res-
cheduling, commercial financing for development, state-owned enterprises,
barter and countertrade, technology transfer agreements and international
transport of goods: contracts and insurance.
For 1989-90, the Institute has scheduled seminars on the following
topics:
- investment treaties, investment contracts and joint venture
agreements;
- management and consultancy contracts;
- legal aspects of new techniques for debt and financial assets; and
- legal aspects of reform, management and divestiture of public
enterprises.
In addition to its regular program in Rome, IDLI designs and conducts
TRAINING WORKSHOPS in developing countries upon the specific request of
governments and organizations. Examples include a workshop for the
State Economic Commission of the People's Republic of China on com-
pany law for draftsmen of the Chinese company law and legal advisors
to public enterprise (July, 1986); and other programs in Pakistan, Ca-
meroon and Indonesia. In November, 1988 IDLI will conduct a workshop
for the training of Third World arbitrators in cooperation with the
Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration in Cairo, Egypt.
IDLI trainers also participate as visiting instructors in programs or-
ganized by other training institutions. For example, in November, 1987
an IDLI Program Legal Counsel conducted training on "The Use of
Consultants for Projects" and "Cooperation and Relationships between
Buyers, Local and Foreign Consultants, Suppliers and Constructors" at
TRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENT
a seminar organized in Nairobi, Kenya by the Helsinki School of Eco-
nomics, Programme for Development Cooperation (PRODEC). The In-
stitute has regularly intervened in programs organized by the Italian
Institute for Foreign Commerce (ICE) and the World Tourism Organi-
zation (WTO).
3. Training Methods and Instructors
Each IDLI course and seminar is normally limited to twenty-five
participants. Convinced that "learning by doing" is more effective (and
more interesting) than traditional lectures, especially in the in-service
training of adults, IDLI relies heavily on simulation, particularly in its
twelve-week Development Lawyers Course. It also encourages visiting
instructors to use group exercises based on actual cases and contracts.
Course handbooks consist almost entirely of such real-world materials.
To date, more than 300 of the world's leading experts have participated
in IDLI programs as visiting instructors, many of them on a pro bono
basis. The Institute believes it important to include in each group of
instructors experts from the Third World, who articulate developing
country concerns and provide role models.
IDLI's legal training staff serve both as instructors and as course
managers, overseeing course preparation and follow-up and attending each
session as continuous monitors.
Visiting instructors provide instruction in specific skill areas of spe-
cialized subject matter. Typically, they are private practitioners in inter-
national law firms, representatives of legal departments and financing
agencies and developing countries ministries, in-house counsel to private
corporations or university professors. Most of them are lawyers by train-
ing, but some are experts in related disciplines.
IDLI raison d'etre lies in its participants. Their professional back-
ground, current responsibilities and personal motivation are fundamental
to the Institute's overall objective.
From the outset, IDLI has succeeded in attracting the right partici-
pants-serious learners with a demonstrated "need to know." A recent
Francophone course included legal advisors to heads of state in four
countries. In 1986, an African Attorney General took leave of absence to
attend the Anglophone Development Lawyers Course. Two recent seminars
on "Legal Aspects of International Debt Rescheduling" attracted parti-
cipants (including eight directors or assistant directors of debt) from eleven
of the fifteen most indebted countries.
IDLI initially confined its participant recruitment to Africa and the
Middle East. Almost every African country has been represented (two
THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986
thirds of our alumni are African) and the number of participants from
the Gulf countries is expanding. Now there are increasing expressions of
interest from other regions as well. IDLI has already trained legal advisors
from Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and now
actively promotes its program worldwide.
The Institute's role extends beyond the training room. Continuing
communication with participants, visiting instructors and collaborating
organizations provides the international legal community with a forum
for law and development. IDLI maintains contact with alumni through
its biannual newsletter (the IDLI Bulletin) and follow-up evaluation.
Alumni and visiting instructors are asked to recommend seminar topics.
The legal training staff consults former participants while on missions
abroad. Increasing applications for each new course and seminar and
feedback from participants in the form of evaluations and letters show
that our efforts are responding to a felt need.
Positive evaluations and follow-up letters confirm that in-service legal
training is important for the participants and their countries. One donor
completed an external evaluation of IDLI, the results of which were
overwhelmingly positive. In responding to a donor questionnaire, a DLC
participant wrote:
Lawyers are said to be spoilers during the negotiation stages of a
project and thus find themselves being pushed aside until the negotiation
stage is completed. Once there are problems concerning interpretation
of the agency's procurement guidelines, then the lawyer's training and
knowledge are sought. This often occurs when it is too late for the
lawyer to remedy the situation. IDLI clearly puts across the importance
of the lawyer's and legal advisor's participation in the initial stage of
the project.
Has the Institute succeeded? IDLI's experience is perhaps too short
for a definitive answer. However, the important operational and advisory
positions occupied by its alumni and the high level of its visiting instructors
demonstrate that the Institute, so far, is drawing the right participants
and experts.
The bottom line seems to be that IDLI training works: It enhances
individual job performance, helps developing countries get better deals in
international contracts and provides practical insights for national law
reform. Thus it may contribute, at least in a modest way, to the estab-
lishment of a new global order.


Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLI Experience

Valparaiso University

Third World Legal StudiesVolume 5 Article 61-6-1986Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLIExperienceL. Michael HagerFollow this and additional works at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/twlsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion inThird World Legal Studies by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member atscholar@valpo.edu.Recommended CitationHager, L. Michael (1986) "Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLI Experience," Third World Legal Studies: Vol. 5, Article 6.Available at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/twls/vol5/iss1/6TRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENT: THEIDLI EXPERIENCEL. Michael Hager*Law is a silent partner in the development process. Economic policiesfind expression in statutes, regulations, international agreements and con-tracts. Thus the legal advisor is a problem-solver, along with otherdevelopment specialists. As monitors of fair procurement procedures fordevelopment projects, lawyers can help acquire needed goods and services.As legislative draftsmen, they can help achieve meaningful law reform.As international negotiators, they can secure more equitable agreementsfor their countries.A legal framework for international business is fundamental to theachievement of mutual economic gains. Yet business relationships betweenNorth and South reflect imbalances in negotiating capability as well asbargaining strength. Developing countries often fail to achieve negotiatingobjectives when their representatives must learn the "rules of the game"at the bargaining table-where the stakes are high and errors costly.In international commerce, transactions may languish when a devel-oping country is unprepared to deal with technical legal issues. Becauselegal resources have not been fully developed and exploited, developingcountries remain at a disadvantage.The Brandt Commission on International Development Issues observedthat "developing countries, particularly the smaller and poorer ones, needto improve their bargaining strength. International bodies, said the Com-mission, "should be developed to strengthen the capability of developingcountries to negotiate effective and durable agreements." Finally, it ar-gued, "the terms and procecdres of aid have to be improved and mademore flexible." .The International Development Law Institute shares the Brandt Com-mission's vision. The Institute offers a constructive professional approachto the North-South dialogue.* Director, International Development Law Institute, Rome, Italy.THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986Through its training program, IDLI strives to increase the capabilityof Third World lawyers to negotiate effectively in the fields of developmentassistance, foreign investment and international trade. At the same time,the Institute is developing programs to assist lawyers in national lawrevision.1. The International Development Law InstituteIn November, 1980, three legal advisors to cooperation agencies thenresident in Cairo, Egypt, first discussed the possibility of establishing atraining center for developing country lawyers. Later, with the assistanceof Dr. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, an internationally-recognized jurist who wasthen Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Developmentin Vienna, the idea of a development law training institute attracted widesupport.In September, 1982, with a seed money grant from the United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID), the "IDLI Project"began. During the next fifteen months, the Institute was legally establishedas an international, non-governmental organization, a Board of Directorsappointed and a curriculum developed. In December, 1983, IDLI wel-comed twenty-three participants from eighteen countries to its first pro-gram, a two-week seminar on "Negotiating a Petroleum Exploration andDevelopment Agreement."IDLI promotes the deployment of legal resources in the resolution ofdevelopment issues. Its objective is to help lawyers, primarily legal advisorsto government ministries, play a more constructive role in development.The Institute offers practical training in negotiation, legal drafting, inter-national contracting procedures, financing agency rules and national lawrevision. Participants are mid-career legal advisors to government minis-tries, parastatal organizations and companies and private practitioners.The Institute's ability to respond to practical training needs is evi-denced by the wide acceptance of its initial programs. In less than fiveyears, nearly 700 participants (twenty-one percent women) from ninetycountries have attended the Institute's courses and seminars in Rome.IDLI has received financial support from a variety of multilateral andbilateral development cooperation agencies, including the Arab Fund forEconomic and Social Development, the Arab Gulf Programme for UnitedNations Development Organizations (AGFUND), the OPEC Fund forInternational Development, the World Bank, and the governments ofAustralia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Swedenand the United States.TRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENTBelieving that the private sector also benefits from having moreknowledgeable negotiators on the other side of the bargaining table, IDLIhas invited support from private foundations and corporations. To date,the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the General ElectricFoundation, the Heinz Company Foundation, the International Bar As-sociation and Levi Strauss & Company have responded with contributions.In order to enlarge its prospects for voluntary contributions amongEuropean and Asian donor organizations and to make it possible toconclude a headquarters agreement with the Government of Italy, IDLIis transforming its legal status from a non-governmental organization toan inter-governmental organization. On February 5, 1988, eight govern-ments (France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Senegal, Sudan,Tunisia and the United States) signed an agreement to establish IDLI asan international organization.Although IDLI subject matter is politically sensitive (North-Southcommercial negotiations and national law reform), the Institute's lawyer-to-lawyer approach is professional, technical and non-political. Indeed,this problem-solving methodology has been successful in attracting asparticipants government officials from countries with widely differingeconomic and political policies.In order to avoid politicalization, a scientific and professional Boardof Directors, selected on non-political grounds, will retain primary re-sponsibility for policy direction. IDLI's Board now numbers twelve,representing nine nationalities. Dr. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Vice-Presidentand General Counsel of the World Bank, is Board Chairman. IDLI'spermament staff is similarly international: fifteen persons representingseven nationalities.2. Training ProgramThe Institute's regular training program in Rome consists of twotwelve-week DEVELOPMENT LAWYERS COURSE (DLC) and four INTERNA-TIONAL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS (IBT) seminars-thirty-two training weeksin all. Each course and seminar is presented separately in two majorlanguages of international negotiation, English and French.The DLC addresses basic legal skills, practical application of thoseskills and the lawyer's role in the development process. Learning activitiesare structured to help the participants perform more effectively on thejob.The first four weeks stress development lawyers skills:- advising governmental "clients";THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986- identifying legal issues in project documents;- negotiating agreements;- drafting legal documents;- reviewing and revising agreements;- monitoring the performance of legal obligations; and- resolving disputes.In the remaining weeks, participants apply those skills in three im-portant subject areas:- project financing;- international contracting for goods and services; and- foreign investment.The IBT SEMINARS are designed to bridge the legal information gap inspecialized topics selected each year on the basis of developing countrydemand. Past seminars have addressed petroleum agreements, internationalequipment leasing, construction contracts, dispute resolution, debt res-cheduling, commercial financing for development, state-owned enterprises,barter and countertrade, technology transfer agreements and internationaltransport of goods: contracts and insurance.For 1989-90, the Institute has scheduled seminars on the followingtopics:- investment treaties, investment contracts and joint ventureagreements;- management and consultancy contracts;- legal aspects of new techniques for debt and financial assets; and- legal aspects of reform, management and divestiture of publicenterprises.In addition to its regular program in Rome, IDLI designs and conductsTRAINING WORKSHOPS in developing countries upon the specific request ofgovernments and organizations. Examples include a workshop for theState Economic Commission of the People's Republic of China on com-pany law for draftsmen of the Chinese company law and legal advisorsto public enterprise (July, 1986); and other programs in Pakistan, Ca-meroon and Indonesia. In November, 1988 IDLI will conduct a workshopfor the training of Third World arbitrators in cooperation with theRegional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration in Cairo, Egypt.IDLI trainers also participate as visiting instructors in programs or-ganized by other training institutions. For example, in November, 1987an IDLI Program Legal Counsel conducted training on "The Use ofConsultants for Projects" and "Cooperation and Relationships betweenBuyers, Local and Foreign Consultants, Suppliers and Constructors" atTRAINING LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPMENTa seminar organized in Nairobi, Kenya by the Helsinki School of Eco-nomics, Programme for Development Cooperation (PRODEC). The In-stitute has regularly intervened in programs organized by the ItalianInstitute for Foreign Commerce (ICE) and the World Tourism Organi-zation (WTO).3. Training Methods and InstructorsEach IDLI course and seminar is normally limited to twenty-fiveparticipants. Convinced that "learning by doing" is more effective (andmore interesting) than traditional lectures, especially in the in-servicetraining of adults, IDLI relies heavily on simulation, particularly in itstwelve-week Development Lawyers Course. It also encourages visitinginstructors to use group exercises based on actual cases and contracts.Course handbooks consist almost entirely of such real-world materials.To date, more than 300 of the world's leading experts have participatedin IDLI programs as visiting instructors, many of them on a pro bonobasis. The Institute believes it important to include in each group ofinstructors experts from the Third World, who articulate developingcountry concerns and provide role models.IDLI's legal training staff serve both as instructors and as coursemanagers, overseeing course preparation and follow-up and attending eachsession as continuous monitors.Visiting instructors provide instruction in specific skill areas of spe-cialized subject matter. Typically, they are private practitioners in inter-national law firms, representatives of legal departments and financingagencies and developing countries ministries, in-house counsel to privatecorporations or university professors. Most of them are lawyers by train-ing, but some are experts in related disciplines.IDLI raison d'etre lies in its participants. Their professional back-ground, current responsibilities and personal motivation are fundamentalto the Institute's overall objective.From the outset, IDLI has succeeded in attracting the right partici-pants-serious learners with a demonstrated "need to know." A recentFrancophone course included legal advisors to heads of state in fourcountries. In 1986, an African Attorney General took leave of absence toattend the Anglophone Development Lawyers Course. Two recent seminarson "Legal Aspects of International Debt Rescheduling" attracted parti-cipants (including eight directors or assistant directors of debt) from elevenof the fifteen most indebted countries.IDLI initially confined its participant recruitment to Africa and theMiddle East. Almost every African country has been represented (twoTHIRD WORLD LEGAL STUDIES-1986thirds of our alumni are African) and the number of participants fromthe Gulf countries is expanding. Now there are increasing expressions ofinterest from other regions as well. IDLI has already trained legal advisorsfrom Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and nowactively promotes its program worldwide.The Institute's role extends beyond the training room. Continuingcommunication with participants, visiting instructors and collaboratingorganizations provides the international legal community with a forumfor law and development. IDLI maintains contact with alumni throughits biannual newsletter (the IDLI Bulletin) and follow-up evaluation.Alumni and visiting instructors are asked to recommend seminar topics.The legal training staff consults former participants while on missionsabroad. Increasing applications for each new course and seminar andfeedback from participants in the form of evaluations and letters showthat our efforts are responding to a felt need.Positive evaluations and follow-up letters confirm that in-service legaltraining is important for the participants and their countries. One donorcompleted an external evaluation of IDLI, the results of which wereoverwhelmingly positive. In responding to a donor questionnaire, a DLCparticipant wrote:Lawyers are said to be spoilers during the negotiation stages of aproject and thus find themselves being pushed aside until the negotiationstage is completed. Once there are problems concerning interpretationof the agency's procurement guidelines, then the lawyer's training andknowledge are sought. This often occurs when it is too late for thelawyer to remedy the situation. IDLI clearly puts across the importanceof the lawyer's and legal advisor's participation in the initial stage ofthe project.Has the Institute succeeded? IDLI's experience is perhaps too shortfor a definitive answer. However, the important operational and advisorypositions occupied by its alumni and the high level of its visiting instructorsdemonstrate that the Institute, so far, is drawing the right participantsand experts.The bottom line seems to be that IDLI training works: It enhancesindividual job performance, helps developing countries get better deals ininternational contracts and provides practical insights for national lawreform. Thus it may contribute, at least in a modest way, to the estab-lishment of a new global order.

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Training Lawyers for Development: The IDLI Experience

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