The event will be held from November 2-7
The city of Toronto will host the International Bar Association’s Annual Conference 2025, to be held on November 2-7.
The conference will tackle inter alia AI and law, business law, climate justice, the rule of law, tax law, space law, and defining legal services and the role of lawyers. Former Canada Supreme Court judge Rosalie Silberman Abella will deliver the keynote address at the event’s opening ceremony.
Speakers include Bill Browder, who leads the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign; Irwin Cotler, international chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; Alberto Mora, former US Navy general counsel; Beth Van Schaack, former US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice; Michael Scharf, former US Department of State legal adviser; John B Bellinger III, senior associate counsel to the president; Bob Woodward, investigative journalist; and Jeff Skiles, US Airways Flight 1549 co-pilot.
Browder will discuss issues like the personal and political cost of dissent in confronting authoritarian regimes; the worldwide reach of authoritarian repression and its impact on activists, legal systems and civil society; and the role and responsibility of the international community in holding authoritarian leaders accountable. Woodward will speak on presidential power and accountability, investigative journalism today, and learnings from the Watergate scandal.
US and Canadian legal experts will discuss the state of international law under the current US administration. Sessions will also touch on key issues in Canada, such as those entitled “Regional topic: restructurings, investments and opportunities in the Canadian resource industry”; “Mining and politics/national security and foreign investment restrictions to mining”; “US energy policy under Trump 2.0 and its impact on Canada and Mexico”; “Welcome to the wild west: activism in Canada and elsewhere.”
The conference will close with a rule of law symposium with the theme “The future of multilateralism: international law and institutions in an era of impunity and great power competition.”
About 6,000 legal professionals, policymakers, business leaders, and thought leaders from over 130 jurisdictions are expected to attend the IBA Annual Conference 2025.
