[Ecommerce] Representation on US delegation for Hague Convention

[James Love]

I posted this yesterday to the TACD ecommerce working group list.
Jamie


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The US Department of State will be including one person from a consumer
group in the December 13-15 meeting (3 days) in Basel, on the Hague
convention.  Manon Ress, who works for us, attended the October
Washington, DC meetings, as part of the US delegation.   She will be
attending the December 11-12 Hague/ADR meetings, and has travel support
now for attending all Hague negotiation meeting that are likely to take
place through June 6, when the first diplomatic conference begins.  In
fact, following the Hague convention is basically her full time job.  
Anyone who wants information about the treaty negotiations should send
her email at mress@essential.org.  

That said, it would seem appropriate to ask if (a) there are other US
TACD members who are interested in being part of the US delegations for
various meetings, and (b) if there is support for Manon participating on
the US delegation.  

The advantages of having the same person attend all the meeting is that
they develop relationships with the other delegates, and move up the
learning curve on the issues.  The advantages of rotating membership are
that some persons might have greater expertise for particular issues, or
more availability.  

In my view, consumer groups should decide who represents them at on the
US delegation, and that goes for this process, although we don't have a
formal way of resolving this at this time.  (Maybe we should).  For now,
we have to give the Department of State a recommendation for the
December Basel meeting.  

Also, we are creating a public listserve just for the Hague Convention
(hague-jur-commercial-law),  for those who have an interest in following
this in more detail.  Note also our web page on the Hague Convention,
here: http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html


  Jamie Love



-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176