For information only - not an official document
UNIS/L/253
25 July 2017
Vienna, 25 July (UN Information Service) - On 20 July, during its fiftieth session held in Vienna, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions (the "Guide to Enactment").
The Guide to Enactment provides a general introduction to, and a brief explanation of, each provision of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions (the "Model Law"), also illustrating how the provisions in the Model Law interrelate with other UNCITRAL texts on secured transactions (the United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade, the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions, the Supplement on Security Interests in Intellectual Property and the UNCITRAL Guide on the Implementation of a Security Rights Registry).
The Model Law, adopted by the Commission at its forty-ninth session in 2016, provides a transparent, comprehensive and rational legislative framework of secured financing. The Model Law is expected to have a beneficial impact on the availability and the cost of credit, in particular to small and medium-size enterprises in developing countries. As the Model Law leaves a number of matters to the discretion of each enacting State, the Guide to Enactment aims at providing useful guidance to State legislators with respect to all those matters.
The work on the preparation of the Guide to Enactment was undertaken by UNCITRAL Working Group VI (Security Interests) at its thirtieth session in 2016 and thirty-first session in 2017. In addition to adopting the Guide to Enactment, the Commission mandated the Working Group to prepare a practice guide on secured transactions, which would address contractual, transactional and regulatory issues arising in the context of secured transactions, as well as finance to micro-businesses.
The final version of the Guide to Enactment will be made available at http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/uncitral_texts/security.html
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The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. Its mandate is to remove legal obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods, transport law, procurement and infrastructure development. UNCITRAL also provides technical assistance to law reform activities, including assisting Member States to review and assess their law reform needs and to draft the legislation required to implement UNCITRAL texts. The UNCITRAL Secretariat is located in Vienna, Austria , and maintains a website at www.uncitral.org .
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For information contact:
Timothy
Lemay
Principal Legal Officer
UNCITRAL Secretariat
Email: timothy.lemay[at]uncitral.org
