The International Association of Procedural Law is an association of scholars from over fifty different countries. It was formally organized in Bologna in 1955, following preliminary meetings in Florence and Vienna. The founders believed that furthering the appreciation, study, and implementation of just and effective legal procedures was an important response to the lawlessness of the despotic regimes of the first half of the twentieth century.

Since those early meetings, the Association has continued to foster the study of procedural law through the exchange of information and publications and the organization of international conferences. World congresses have been convened every four years, with the most recent held in 2007 in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and the next scheduled for Heidelberg in 2011. Interim annual meetings have been held in Europe, North and South America, and Japan. The next annual meeting will take place in Toronto, Canada on June 3-5, 2009. The scholarly papers presented at the meetings are later published.

The Association is comprised of distinguished scholars of procedure elected by the Council. The members of the Presidium are President Federico Carpi (Italy), Vice-President Ada Pellegrini Grinover (Brazil), Vice-President Oscar G. Chase (U.S.A.), Vice-President Masahisa Deguchi (Japan), Secretary-General Peter Gottwald (Germany), Secretary-General Michele Taruffo (Italy), and Executive Secretary-General Loïc Cadiet (France). All interested scholars are welcome at the annual meetings and world congresses.

Further information about the Association and its history can be found on the web-site at www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/Jura/gottwald/iapl/