In this year of 2008, we will be holding our 52nd Congress, our organisation’s most important annual event, and I wish to invite all UIA members to participate in it.

In fact, it will be taking place at a crucial moment for lawyers who are being threatened and harassed in different corners of the planet, but also at a time when the profession is on the verge of turning into a mere business and no longer a profession. This is an issue that we will be able to discuss during this Congress.

Furthermore, UIA celebrates and supports Romania’s entry into the European Union, which is a source of great pleasure for me as UIA President and a European citizen. The European Union’s expansion was essential as an affirmation of the Rule of Law and democracy, as well as for the respect of Human Rights in East Europe.

Furthermore, the main themes which we will address are crucial both for the world at large and for our profession.

Finally, this will be a memorable occasion thanks to the efficiency of the Organising Committee, led by my friend Mihai TANASESCU – a guarantee of success in terms of organisation and results.

All these reasons would be more than enough to justify your taking part in the Congress, but there is yet another: it will be held in Romania, giving us the opportunity to discover the charm of this extraordinary country, where Europe meets the Black Sea, a region steeped in history and culture. There we will find the magnificent city of Sibiu, which easily merited the title of Europe’s Cultural Capital in 2007, the year when Romania joined the European Union.

The proceedings will be held at the House of Parliament and the gala dinner at the Royal Palace.

My words of welcome to you would not be complete without mention of Cristian IORDANESCU, who was the first person involved in the organisation of our Congress in Romania but who sadly died in early December 2007.

I look forward to seeing all of you in Bucharest, with the certainty that the Congress will be unforgettable – both useful and fruitful on the professional front, and pleasant and interesting at the personal level.

                                                                                                                             Héctor DÍAZ-BASTIEN
                                                                                                                             UIA President

Dear friends,

You already know from the messages in the preliminary programme that the Bucharest Congress will be unique: the beauty of the city that most of you haven’t been to, the joy of its inhabitants after joining the Great European Family, the country’s special characteristics - Latin by training and culture, Oriental because of the influence of the Middle Ages and the Ottoman domination - and its multiculturalism. This is a land at the crossroads of history and much more.

Unfortunately, a shadow has been cast over this unique event, by the fact that the person who fought with all his heart and soul to organise this Congress in Bucharest, the one who, with his intelligence, his joy, his energy, his good humour and his friendship invited you all here – I am obviously speaking of Cristian IORDANESCU – is no longer with us to welcome you.

He who had the idea of transforming Bucharest into a “bridge towards the future” now only lives on in our memories…

The generations that come after us must not forget that those who witnessed the transition from the 20th century to the 21st century lived through a period when a wall divided a city, a curtain divided a continent and an ideology divided a world.

I believe that it is the mission of the lawyers present at the Bucharest Congress - indeed, that of all the world’s lawyers - to show by their own example the unity of our profession with other professional structures – social and political.

This will also ensure that our Congress is crowned with success because it is here, more than anywhere else, that memory will help us build the future. The generations that take the first step onto the “bridge towards the future”, here in Bucharest, are sure to find unity, harmony and joie de vivre on the other side.

In Bucharest, you will smile, meet friends, participate in technical and cultural meetings, enjoy yourselves in the company of colleagues from Romania and the Black Sea countries, discover and rediscover a world that has long been waiting for you.

Welcome in Bucharest!

                                                                                                             Mihai TANASESCU
                                                                                                             President of the 2008 Congress