International Law Association

The International Law Association (ILA) is a non-profit organisation based in Great Britain that — according to its constitution — promotes "the study, clarification and development of international law" and "the furtherance of international understanding and respect for international law". The ILA was founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1873 and its present-day headquarters are in London. It is one of the oldest continuing organisations in the field of international law in the world and has consultative status, as an international non-governmental organisation, with a number of the United Nations-specialised agencies. Currently, the ILA has 20 active committees and 8 study groups that analyse specific facets of private and public international law. The findings of these groups are distributed to its members several times a year. There are over 4,500 active ILA members around the world. The ILA's membership ranges from lawyers in private practice, academia, government and the judiciary, to non-lawyer experts from commercial, industrial and financial spheres, and representatives of bodies such as shipping and arbitration organisations and chambers of commerce. The ILA holds biennial (once in two years) conferences and releases reports of the same for use of the international community. ILA members as well as members of the public are allowed to participate in the conference. The 78th Biennial Conference of the ILA took place in August 2018 in Sydney, Australia. The 79th Biennial Conference was held in Kyoto, Japan from 23–27 August 2020.