Feb. 29, 2024
Publications
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Connaitre les pratiques pour redessiner les frontières et accroître les points de contact entre Compliance et droits de la défense dans l’enquête interne, la CJIP et la CRPC (lignes de force de l'ouvrage)" ("Understanding practices to redraw the boundaries and increase the points of contact between Compliance and the rights of the defense in internal investigation, Judicial Public Interest Agreement and French guilty plea procedure (Main Aspects of the Book)."), in M.-A. Frison-Roche et M. Boissavy (ed.), Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CJIP – CRPC, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", to be published.
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📝read the article (in French)
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📝 read also the presentation of the other contribution of Marie-Anne Frison-Roche in this book: "Circuler dans le temps pour mettre en phase Compliance et droits de la défense"
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📕read a general presentation of the book, Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CJIP – CRPC, in which this article is published
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Feb. 28, 2024
Publications
🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche "Circuler dans le temps pour mettre en phase Compliance et droits de la défense ("Moving through Time to align Compliance with the rights of the defence")", in M.-A. Frison-Roche et M. Boissavy (dir.), Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CJIP – CRPC, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", to be published.
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📝read the article (in French)
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📕read the general presentation of the book, Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CJIP – CRPC, in which this article is published (in French)
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📝read also the presentation of the other article published par Marie-Anne Frison-Roche in this book : "Connaitre les pratiques pour redessiner les frontières et accroître les points de contact entre Compliance et droits de la défense dans l’enquête interne, la CJIP et la CRPC" (Understanding practices to redraw the boundaries and increase the points of contact between Compliance and the rights of the defense in Internal Investigation, Judicial Public Interest Agreement and French guilty plea procedure)
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► English Summary of this article: the subject of Compliance & rights of the defence is difficult to pin down because it often gives rise to totally opposing presentations, which express the initial confrontation between Compliance and rights of the defence, which seems irreducible. This initial confrontation must be acknowledged, and this is even more necessary to prevent it from becoming definitive(I)
But in a society governed by the Rule of Law, the rights of the defence are central, and the hierarchy of norms dictates that they remain the privilege of all those who risk being punished in the future. Admittedly, if we look at the course of events in a linear way, the Compliance mechanisms come in Ex Ante, whereas the rights of the defence would only be activated when the repressive procedures would later come to bear on the moral or natural person. The question would therefore not even arise, or not in a central way. But this reasoning creates a false compatibility between Compliance and the rights of the defence (II.
Indeed, it is the perspective of punishment in the future that forms the basis for the attribution of rights of the defence in the present. This consideration of the future not only allows but obliges the Law to "move in time", to always think in advance about what might happen tomorrow: this is how we must think about the Compliance methods of Internal Investigation, the DPA (or in the French legal system the Convention judiciaire d'intérêt public and the French Guilty plea procedure (CRPC) (III). As soon as these Compliance Tools are being used in practice, at the time they are being used, we must already think about how their results will be used, results which they have often been used for, because the Internal Investigation is a formidable piece of Evidence for obtaining a conviction and/or a DPA, etc. : therefore, the rights of the defence must shift over time, from the future to the present of the Information collect.
Two ambiguities that affect Compliance Law itself, ambiguities which the rights of the defence help to clarify, now appear more clearly. The first concerns the place occupied by the consent of the person who could have been protected by the rights of defence but //who exercises his/her will to renounce them (IV). Consent, in relation to the will of which it is the expression, is also linked with the future and allows Compliance once again to take precedence over the prerogatives of the individual who chooses not to benefit from it. The omnipresence of 'consent' in Compliance is enlightening here... The second ambiguity concerns the place of secrecy (V). Secrecy seems to be the prerogative of the rights of the defence. But it can also be an effective Compliance Tool when Confidentiality enables the company to detect and prevent breaches. It may even constitute the very Monumental Goal of Compliance Law. This happens when the Goal of Compliance Law, in which legal normativity is placed, becomes the protection of the individual, as is the case for personal information. That guides the European Judge, in line with the humanism that underpins European Compliance Law, in finding the right balance, this protection and effectiveness, depending on whether the information must be given or must be not.
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Feb. 26, 2024
Public Auditions
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► Référence complète : M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Le juge dans les contentieux de vigilance", participation à la "table ronde sur le devoir de vigilance", audition par la Commission d'enquête du Sénat sur les moyens mobilisés et mobilisables par l'État pour assurer la prise en compte et le respect par le groupe TotalEnergies des obligations climatiques et des orientations de la politique étrangère de la France, 26 février 2024, 16h-17h30
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📺regarder en différé l'ensemble de la table ronde
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⚖️ Cette audition a été menée en considération de règles spécifiques à ma situation dans la mesure où d'une part le Droit interdit sous peine de sanction pénale à la personne convoquée de refuser de se présenter et ou d'autre part j'ai immédiatement rappelé au secrétariat de la Commission d'Enquête qu'ayant été Amica Curiae dans le litige opposant les associations Les Amis de la Terre et autres en demande et le groupe TotalEnergie en défense, l'objet du litige portant sur des manquements allégués d'obligations découlant de devoir de vigilance, le statut d'Amica Curiae a conduit pendant cette instance à ne pas connaître le dossier et à continuer de ne pas le connaître pendant une période raisonnable après l'audience du 26 octobre 2022 et le jugement du 28 février 2024 dans le cas dit "Total Ouganda", ce qui conduit nécessairement par application aux règles juridiques et de déontologie à ne pas répondre à certaines questions.
Dans le respect de ces contraintes, il est répondu le mieux possible pour éclairer la Commission d'Enquête.
Cette audition est à mettre en corrélation avec l'audition qui s'est déroulée devant la Commission ... de l'Assemblée Nationale ....
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► Organisation de la Table Ronde : En accord avec le secrétariat de la Commission d'Enquête, et afin de rendre le plus fructueux possible le premier temps de cette table ronde ayant pour objet Le devoir de vigilance, dans la mesure où il apparaît que dans l'ensemble des auditions programmées, c'est sans doute là où se concentre le plus l'expertise juridique, les 4 intervenants se sont préalablement réunis pour éviter le double écueil soit de traiter deux fois la même chose soit de laisse une dimension du sujet non traité.
Ainsi la première intervenante traite de la façon dont les entreprises élaborent les plans de vigilance, le deuxième intervenant développe la façon dont elles intègrent leur devoir de vigilance dans leur déploiement international, notamment par des mécanismes contractuels, le troisième intervenant expose ce que, dans les contentieux, les demandeurs (qui sont souvent des ONG) allèguent, ce qui m'a conduit en dernier lieu à exposer ce qu'il en est de l'office du juge en la matière.
Il en résulte que mon intervention de 8 minutes aborde plus particulièrement de la question de l'office du juge dans la mise en application du devoir de vigilance.
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🔲consulter les slides servant de support à cette intervention
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► Présentation de l'intervention préliminaire : En premier lieu, j'ai souligné qu'en l'état du droit positif, le droit français repose sur le juge puisque la loi pose une Obligation de Vigilance, qui est à la fois une obligation générale et de moyens, l'entreprise devant montrer qu'elle fait ses "meilleurs efforts", cette obligation générale, qui n'est pas limitée à l'environnement, étant déclinée d'une façon particulière par l'entreprise en fonction de ses risques particuliers et de ses engagements propres, notamment contractuels, tandis que le juge applique ce système au cas par cas.
La loi de 2017 a voulu confier ce pouvoir au juge et a voulu un système simple en donnant la seule compétence au seul Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris, ce qui permet d'obtenir une interprétation jurisprudentielle, aussi bien sur les questions procédurales et substantielles, immédiatement unifiée, le dialogue des juges devant être toujours favorisé, tandis que la spécialisation et la formation de ces juges étant un enjeu auquel les juridictions ont répondu concrètement, la Cour d'appel de Paris ayant mis en place une chambre spécialisée, tandis qu'une formation spécialisée sur ces "contentieux systémiques émergents" d'un type nouveau se met en place. Cette spécialisation rend moins impérieuse l'établissement d'une Autorité administrative de supervision.
Cette présence du juge ne doit pas être présentée ni perçue comme pathologique car le procès de vigilance est dans l'ordre des choses, les parties prenantes trouvant une voie d'expression : d'une part plus les entreprises développeront en amont le dialogue et moins il y aura de contentieux et d'autre part le procès lui-même, en continuum, doit favoriser ce dialogue, par le contradictoire et par la médiation.. C'est une part essentielle de l'office du juge qui doit aussi faire respecter le Droit et apporter des solutions à ces enjeux systémiques, la remédiation (plutôt que trancher et sanctionner) étant une voie de son office à développer.
Parce que les juridictions concernées ont su ajuster leur organisation interne et les juges adapter leur office, la généralité de la loi de 2017 permettant précisément cela, la question de l'adoption ou de la non-adoption de la directive CS3D n'étant de ce fait pas un enjeu dramatique parce que le juge est déjà au centre de la vigilance, il convient plutôt de laisser le temps que l'oeuvre de jurisprudence se fasse.
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Feb. 24, 2024
Interviews
► Référence complète : J. Beyssade, "Compliance et gouvernance (exemple d'un groupe bancaire)", entretien mené par M.-A. Frison-Roche à l'occasion d'une série d'entretiens sur le Droit de la Compliance, in Fenêtres ouvertes sur la gestion, émission de J.-Ph. Denis, Xerfi Canal, enregistré le 12 décembre 2023, diffusé le 24 février 2024
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🌐consulter sur LinkedIn la présentation de l'interview de Jacques Beyssade
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🌐consulter sur LinkedIn le compte-rendu de l'interview de Jacques Beyssade
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🎥visionner l'interview complète sur Xerfi Canal
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► Point de départ : En 2022, Jacques Beyssade écrit une contribution sur 📝La féminisation des postes à responsabilité dans les entreprises comme but de la compliance. Exemple du secteur bancaire, dans 📕Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance
🧱lire la présentation de cette contribution ➡️cliquerICI
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► Résumé de l'entretien :
Marie-Anne Frison-Roche. Question : Compliance et gouvernance, on fait souvent le lien. Pouvez-vous nous expliquer comment, dans la stratégie d’un groupe bancaire comme BPCE, s’articule ce lien entre compliance et gouvernance ?
Jacques Beyssade. Réponse. : Il répond que
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MaFR. Q. : Prenons un exemple concret, où la Compliance et la gouvernance servent un but concret : par exemple l’égalité effective entre les femmes et les hommes. Dans votre groupe, comment cela se passe ?
J.B. R. : Il répond que
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MaFR. Q. : A l’avenir, peut-on espérer que cette alliance entre cette nouvelle gouvernance et la puissance de la Compliance puisse transformer nos sociétés ?
J.B. R. : Il répond que
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Feb. 19, 2024
Publications
🌐 follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, Compliance and conformity: distinguishing them to articulate them, Working Paper, February 2024.
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📝 this working paper was drawn up to serve as a basis for the article published in French in the Chronique MAFR - Compliance Law, published in the Recueil Dalloz.
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► Summary of this Working Paper: The words "conformité" and "compliance" are sometimes used interchangeably, presenting "conformité" as the translation into good legal French vocabulary of "compliance", which would come from the American system. This is not true, however, because each of these terms refers to two distinct and even opposing concepts.
"conformity"' would require companies to show that they are actively obeying all the 'regulations' applicable to them, regardless of their content. "Compliance Law" is a new substantial branch of Law that derives its normativity from the "Monumental Goals" targeted by the political and public authorities: these monumental goals are intended to ensure that systems do not collapse in the future (Negative Monumental Goals), or even improve (Positive Monumental Goals). The systems concerned are banking, finance, energy, health, transport, digital and climate systems. The scope of Compliance Law is therefore both much more limited and more ambitious.
Distinguishing between the two allows us to put conformity back where it belongs, as a tool of Compliance Law. As such, conformity justifies the collation and correlation of information, with the algorithmic system playing a major role in this. On the other hand, the human concern that underpins Compliance Law justifies making training and the actions of in-house lawyers, attorneys and judges, central to it. The evidentiary system of Compliance that is currently being developed is based on evidentiary techniques rooted on the one hand in the tool of conformity and on the other in the culture of Compliance, which can be articulated as soon as they are no longer confused.
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🔓read the working paper below⤵️
Feb. 9, 2024
Conferences
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Préalable : ce qu'est un engagement" ("Prerequisite: the Commitment"), in L. Aynès, M.-A. Frison-Roche, J.-B. Racine and E. Silva-Romero (dir.), L'arbitrage international en renfort de l'obligation de Compliance (International Arbitration in support of the Compliance Obligation), Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Institute of World Business Law of the ICC (Institute), Conseil Économique Social et Environnemental (CESE), Paris, February 9, 2024
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🧮see the full programme of this event
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🌐consult on LinkedIn a general presentation of this event, which links to a presentation of each speech (in French)
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🔲see the slides used to support the presentation (in French)
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Préalable : ce qu'est l'Obligation de Compliance" ("Prerequisite: what is the Compliance Obligation"), given at the same symposium
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Le renforcement des engagements de Compliance par le renvoi Ex Ante à l'arbitrage international" ("Reinforcing Compliance commitments by referring Ex Ante to International Arbitration") which was finally not pronounced but will be the subject of an 📝article in the forthcoming book 📘Compliance Obligation
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► Presentation of the conference: Having defined the Compliance Obligation in "Préalable : ce qu'est l'Obligation de Compliance" ("Prerequisite: what is the Compliance Obligation"), I set out to define what a commitment is.
No one doubts that commitments, as words, constitute facts that can engage the liability of companies if there are inconsistencies or lies. The question today is whether a commitment can constitute a legal act, binding in ex ante.
Companies make commitments either to fulfil their legal Compliance obligations, which is simply obeying the law, or to express their own wishes, either for themselves or for others. The cases are often confused, even though the scope is not the same.
If the commitment takes the form of a contract, Compliance is concerned if the contract is used as an Ex Ante Compliance Tool📎!footnote-3383, either if the entire contract has this purpose, or if a compliance clause is inserted, and an arbitration clause may be linked to it.
The commitment, a concept that comes more from the Economics of Regulation, was conceived between a Regulatory Authority and a Company: it is the unilateral decision of the Authority that gives legal force to the commitment. Case law confirms this (Conseil d'État (French Council of State)📎!footnote-3384 and Conseil constitutionnel (French Constitutional Council)📎!footnote-3385) and this is particularly clear in Competition Law, but it is also true of the convention judiciaire d'intérêt public - CJIP (French Judicial Public Interest Agreement).
If commitment is central to Compliance, particularly Vigilance, it is because Compliance Law is an extension of Regulatory Law📎!footnote-3386. The company is forcibly instituted by the Compliance regulator, particularly in value chains, or on digital spaces (DSA).
In drawing up a plan, the company is fulfilling its legal obligation. But if we were to consider that it is a commitment, then we would also have to consider that the plan is the result of its will, that it must consult the stakeholders in its preparation, but that the source of the plan is its will: the provisions are not stipulations, are not applications of the law, but unilateral voluntary provisions.
In this respect, and because its source is the will of the company (which does not prevent its co-construction), a plan could contain a "graduated offer" of arbitration.
This offer could be included in commitments that are less regulated by law, such as those made in the context of CSR.
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Feb. 9, 2024
Conferences
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Préalable : ce qu'est l'obligation de Compliance" ("Prerequisite: the Compliance Obligation"), in L. Aynès, M.-A. Frison-Roche, J.-B. Racine and E. Silva-Romero (dir.), L'arbitrage international en renfort de l'obligation de Compliance (International Arbitration in support of the Compliance Obligation), Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Institute of World Business Law of the ICC (Institute), Conseil Économique Social et Environnemental (CESE), Paris, February 9, 2024
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🧮see the full programme of this event
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🌐consult on LinkedIn a general presentation of this event, which links to a presentation of each speech (in French)
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🔲see the slides used to support the presentation (in French)
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Préalable : ce qu'est un engagement" ("Prerequisite: the Commitment"), given at the same symposium
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Le renforcement des engagements de Compliance par le renvoi Ex Ante à l'arbitrage international" ("Reinforcing Compliance commitments by referring Ex Ante to International Arbitration") which was finally not pronounced but will be the subject of an 📝article in the forthcoming book 📘Compliance Obligation
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► Presentation of the conference: I have first dealt with the very definition of the Compliance Obligation.
After showing that the relationship between Compliance Law and International Arbitration will naturally develop, because the companies subject to it are international, because they contractualise their legal Compliance obligations and because Compliance is being jurisdictionalised📎!footnote-3379, the arbitrator being the natural judge since he is a global judge and the judge of the contract, I pointed out that Compliance Law does not simply entrust arbitration with the task of preventing evils, such as corruption pacts, but that it creates positive obligations for companies: to detect and prevent behaviour whose systemic effect is deleterious.
This culture of compliance is achieved either through compliance contracts📎!footnote-3380 (which outsource the handling of audits, alerts, the drawing up of plans, etc.), or through compliance clauses📎!footnote-3380, which are inserted into distribution or supply contracts, etc.; arbitration clauses are linked to these. Thus, the alliance between Compliance and Contract is an indirect mode of alliance between Arbitration and Compliance Obligation.
The obligation of Compliance which then takes concrete form consists for the company not in making effective Ex Ante all the regulations which apply to it (conception of conformity which is at once unreasonable, blind and impossible), but in making its best efforts, which it must make visible (see Compliance Evidence System📎!footnote-3381) to achieve Monumental Goals.
These Monumental Goals are systemic. The aim is to protect systems from collapse (Negative Monumental Goals) or to make them better (Positive Monumental Goals)📎!footnote-3382. By making companies accountable, via this Ex Ante Law whose object is the future, the systemic evils of corruption, money laundering, discrimination, climate change and hatred are combated, thus finding substantial unity. The Positive Monumental Goals aim to engender sustainability, security, respect for human beings, etc. in systems, be they banking, financial, digital, climatic, etc.
The role of the Judge, and therefore also that of the Arbitrator, is renewed.
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Feb. 9, 2024
Conferences
🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn
🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law
____
► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Le renforcement des engagements de Compliance par le renvoi Ex Ante à l'arbitrage international" ("Reinforcing Compliance commitments by referring Ex Ante to International Arbitration"), in L. Aynès, M.-A. Frison-Roche, J.-B. Racine and E. Silva-Romero (dir.), L'arbitrage international en renfort de l'obligation de Compliance (International Arbitration in support of the Compliance Obligation), Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Institute of World Business Law of the ICC (Institute), Conseil Économique Social et Environnemental (CESE), Paris, February 9, 2024
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🧮see the full programme of this event
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🌐consult on LinkedIn a general presentation of this event, which links to a presentation of each speech (in French)
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🔲see the slides used to support the presentation (in French)
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📝This conference and the Working Paper on which it is based are to be linked with the article to be published in the book📘Compliance Obligation
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Préalable : ce qu'est l'Obligation de Compliance" ("Prerequisite: what is the Compliance Obligation"), given at the same symposium
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🎤see a presentation of the conference "Préalable : ce qu'est un engagement" ("Prerequisite: the Commitment"), given at the same symposium
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► Presentation of the conference: It was initially planned that I would speak on the subject Le renforcement des engagements de Compliance par le renvoi Ex Ante à l'arbitrage international (Reinforcing Compliance commitments through the Ex Ante referral to International Arbitration), but it was agreed with the other organisers of the symposium that after defining the concept of the Compliance Obligation📎!footnote-3390 I would refocus my second speech, mentioned above, on what a Commitment is📎!footnote-3391, an essential prerequisite for dealing with the subject of International Arbitration in support of the Compliance Obligation. Developments on Reinforcing Compliance commitments through the Ex Ante referral to International Arbitration will appear in the forthcoming books: L'obligation de Compliance (in French), Compliance Obligation (in English). Nevertheless, if I had dealt with this subject, I would have raised the following points:
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