The 20th AIIFL Distinguished Public Lecture: The True Status of Corporate Directors and Officers – “Discretionaries” Not Fiduciaries (3 December 2025)

The 20th AIIFL Distinguished Public Lecture, titled “The True Status of Corporate Directors and Officers – ‘Discretionaries’ Not Fiduciaries,” was successfully delivered by Professor Marc I. Steinberg, the Rupert and Lillian Radford Chair in Law and Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law.

For more information, please visit https://aiifl.law.hku.hk/events_posts/the-true-status-of-corporate-directors-and-officers/.

HKU Law, AIIFL, and UNCITRAL convened global experts in Hong Kong for the 8th Conference on International Coordination of Secured Transactions Reform (27-28 November 2025)

Hong Kong, 27-28 November 2025 – The Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong (HKU Law) and its Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) co‑organised with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) the 8th Conference on International Coordination of Secured Transactions Reform on 27–28 November 2025. ​The Conference, held at HKU Law, was led by UNCITRAL in its capacity as 2025 Chair of the Joint Network for Coordinating and Supporting Secured Transactions Reforms, with the support of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the World Bank Group, and the International Law Institute (ILI).

Additional information about UNCITRAL activities and the Joint Network is available on UNCITRAL’s website: https://uncitral.un.org/en/content/joint-network-coordinating-and-supporting-secured-transactions-reforms

Presentations, video recordings, and details about the Conference can be found at https://aiifl-event.law.hku.hk/8th-conference-secured-transactions-reforms.

Press Release: https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_28820.html 

Asian Institute of International Financial Law and UNIDROIT Asian Transnational Law Centre sign Enhanced Cooperation Agreement (26 November 2025)

The Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong (HKULAW) Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) and the UNIDROIT Asian Transnational Law Centre (ATLC) signed an Enhanced Cooperation Agreement. Building upon the 2020 Memorandum of Understanding signed by UNIDROIT and HKU, the Enhanced Cooperation Agreement provides for joint initiatives between the ATLC and AIIFL to study and promote the impact of UNIDROIT instruments in Asia in the fields of access to credit, financial markets, international contracts, investment law, digital technology, and sustainable development. The Agreement was signed in-person by ATLC Co-Director William Brydie-Watson and AIIFL Director Professor Giuliano Castellano on the HKU Campus in Hong Kong.

To celebrate this new agreement, We also hosted the first AIIFL – ATLC Seminar on “Transnational Commercial Law: Trade and Finance in the Digital Age: UNIDROIT’s Role and Future Work”. As an initiative under the ATLC’s ongoing Seminar Series, this first AIIFL – ATLC Seminar featured presentations by Professors Henry Gabriel (Elon University), Professor Megumi Hara (Chuo University), Professor Teresa Rodriguez de las Heras Ballell (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Professor James Si Zeng (HKULAW), Professor Giuliano G. Castellano (HKULAW) and Mr William Brydie-Watson (UNIDROIT), with a focus on UNIDROIT’s instruments in the fields of international commercial contracts, access to credit, digital assets and cross-border enforcement.

More details at https://aiifl.law.hku.hk/events_posts/aiifl-atlc-seminars-on-transnational-commercial-law-trade-and-finance-in-the-digital-age-unidroits-role-and-future-work/.