Law Club

May 27, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has been re-elected to the United National Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for a six year period, the foreign ministry said Sunday. The next meeting of the UNCITRAL will be held in Vienna, Austria from June 25 to July 12. Other countries elected to represent the Asian region were Bahrain, China, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, and Singapore.

UNCITRAL was established in 1996 promote the harmonization and unification of international trade law as the core legal body of the United Nations system.

"It is currently working in seven key areas - sale of goods and related transactions, transport of goods, commercial arbitration and conciliation, public procurement, construction contracts, international payments and electronic commerce," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has enacted its Electronic Transaction Act No.19 of 2006 based on the UNCITRAL model law on e-commerce and e-signature, and signed the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, last year.

Sri Lanka was first elected to UNCITRAL in 2003.