Proactive Law Conference 2011 1st & 2nd of December 2011

Theme: Proactive Law in a Global Business Perspective
The Law Department of Copenhagen Business School invites you to a two-day conference on proactive law. The conference continues the series of Nordic conferences dedicated to the topic, in Helsinki, Finland (2003), Stockholm, Sweden (2005) and Turku, Finland (2007) and a symposium held in 2009 in Nancy, France.

This year’s conference is organized by Copenhagen Business School in partnership with ICN Business School Nancy-Metz and CEREFIGE (Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie, Finance et Gestion), International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) and the ProActive ThinkTank.

In the corporate arena, the Proactive Law approach seeks to promote business success and prevent conflicts by taking early action. The goal is to provide clarity as to legal rights and duties, to maximize opportunities and to anticipate and avoid problems rather than addressing them after they arise. The approach, originating in the Nordic countries in the 1990s, develops and promotes good legal behavior but also prevents undesirable behavior and minimizes risk. The approach seeks to include legal considerations in the managerial process, embedding business-oriented legal thinking into corporate strategy, deals and relationships.

This year’s conference focuses on the proactive law approach in a global business perspective. During Day One, the conference introduces the approach and looks at it through the prism of three relevant topics. The first is international commercial litigation, where contractual management of litigation risk and transaction risk has gained attention of practitioners and academics alike. The second is new media and IT services where proactive compliance is the keyword for businesses who wish to maximize opportunities and minimize risks when entering the many new digital markets. The third is contracts as proactive law instruments and proactive/strategic contracting. On Day Two, the discussion on Proactive Law and Proactive Contracting continues with examples from both the private and the public sector. Contract visualization is presented as a possible means to promote the proactive approach and enable knowledge transfer, innovation and co-creation across boundaries – whether between countries, cultures, organizations, or professions.