ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DES ÉTUDES BYZANTINES
Statutes of the International Association of Byzantine Studies
Preamble
The Association was set up by the Sixth and Seventh International Congress of Byzantine Studies convened in Paris and Brussels in July-August 1948. The statutes set out below, approved by the General Assembly at London on August 22, 2006, replace and cancel the previous statutes of 1948, amended in 1961. They exist in a French version and an English version, the French being the sole authentic version. They have been registered in Paris, which the Association has made its legal domicile.
Title 1: Aims and Composition of the Association
Art. 1: The parties to the present statutes agree to the establishment of an association regulated by the law of 1st July 1901 and the decree of 16 August 1901, with the title “International Association of Byzantine Studies”. The object of the Association is to promote Byzantine studies in the widest sense and to assume responsibility for organising regular international congresses (cf. art. 14), normally every five years, and for facilitating research in this field. It may undertake any activities contributing directly or indirectly to this end, with the exception of those which may exceed the recognized capacity of a registered association.
Art. 2: The Association shall comprise three categories of members:
Category A, which shall comprise those National Committees of Byzantine studies that have requested and been granted admission on a decision by a simple majority of the A members of the General Assembly present or represented, being one per sovereign state; the National Committees shall be represented in membership voting by their chairpersons or one delegate.
Category B, which shall comprise the members of the Bureau (defined in art. 5); Category C, which shall comprise the various institutions and individuals supporting
Byzantine studies, in particular by financial means in a significant way, and who have been admitted by the General Assembly as honorary members for a period of five years, on the basis of a unanimous decision of the Bureau and by a simple majority of the A members present and represented.
Art.3: The registered office of the Association shall be in Paris, where its statutes have been registered in accordance with current French legislation; the court competent to judge any litigation regarding the functioning of the Association and relations between its members with respect to the functioning of the Association is therefore the Tribunal de Grande instance in Paris.
Art. 4: Membership shall be lost through resignation or striking from the roll, primarily as a result of non-payment of the subscription. In the latter case the Bureau is entitled to suspend voting rights until the member has effected full payment of the arrears in subscription. The General Assembly alone may decree a final striking from the roll, upon receiving a report from the Bureau.
Title II Administration and Functioning
Art. 5: The Association shall comprise the following bodies:
The General Assembly, comprising three categories of members:
In category A, for each National Committee, one delegate with a deliberative vote (and a possible alternate with a consultative vote).
In category B, the members of the Bureau have a deliberative vote and their substitutes have a consultative vote, while the honorary members of the Bureau have a consultative vote.
In category C, one representative of each institution and physical person belonging to category C has a consultative vote.
The Bureau comprises three individuals holding the offices of President, Secretary and Treasurer. Each has an alternate elected jointly on the basis of their individual proposal. The members of the Bureau shall be exempt from subscription. Honorary members of the Bureau are the honorary presidents, the vice-presidents and the honorary vice-presidents appointed according to the statutes of 1961.
Art. 6: The individuals holding the various offices of the Bureau shall be elected by the ordinary General Assembly of each Congress by an absolute majority of the A members present or represented at the first count, and by a simple majority at the second count. In the case of a tie, the youngest candidate shall be declared elected. The mandate extends until the following Congress; each individual mandate may be renewed once. Candidates shall be members of one of the National Committees and be under 70 years of age at the date of the vote. Candidacies must be registered with the Bureau, which shall take all steps to ensure that they are transmitted to the national committees at least two months in advance of an election. The three elected individuals and the president’s alternate shall each come from different National Committees. The alternates of the Secretary and Treasurer may come from the same national committee as the office-holder. Where this is not the case they must come from a national committee different from that of the other office-holders and alternates on the Bureau. The functions of members of the Bureau are incompatible with those of a delegate of an A member of the General Assembly.
Art. 7: The ordinary General Assembly shall be convened by the Bureau on the convocation of each Congress. It shall also meet at least once between congresses at a date and venue to be decided by the Bureau, preferably in Greece. An agenda shall be attached to each invitation, which shall be sent electronically or by post at least 2 months in advance. Each General Assembly has the task of admitting new category A and C members by a simple majority vote of the A members present or represented.
It shall be presented with a situation report from the President, a financial report from the Treasurer and a report on the activities of the Association, to be delivered by the Secretary, and shall adopt a position on these reports. It shall fix for each budgetary period the subscriptions required of the members.
During each year in which there is no General Assembly the national committees shall receive, before the month of April, a report from the Bureau concerning the activities of the Association for the preceding year.
The Bureau shall ensure that the decisions of the General Assembly are effected in sufficient time and to this end shall pursue all necessary measures with the national committee hosting the General Assembly.
The General Assembly shall put to the vote only those items of business which appear on the agenda; such items must include the examination and approval of the budgetary accounts of the period since the previous General assembly. It shall not take any decision which increases the commitments of the members of the Association without the consent of the latter.
The minutes of the sessions shall be produced at the behest of the Bureau, which shall forward them to the members and ensure that they are preserved. The Assembly shall vote by a show of hands, except where individuals are concerned, when the vote shall be by secret ballot. For any agendum, however, at the proposal of the Bureau or of at least one quarter of the members of the General Assembly, the latter may decide to vote by secret ballot.
Art. 8: The voting rights at the General Assembly shall constitute one vote for each National Committee and each member of the Bureau in the cases where the present statutes do not restrict the vote to members of category A. In all voting including the B members, the President shall have the casting vote in case of a tie. Voting by proxy shall be permitted to the extent of one proxy vote per mandatory, elected by members of category A of the General Assembly.
Art. 9: An extraordinary General Assembly may be convened and held under the same terms as an ordinary General Assembly at the request of the Bureau, or at the demand of at least one third of the members of category A exercising their right to vote. It shall hold the remit set out in art. 12.
Art.10: The President shall represent the Association in all acts of civil law, in particular those relating to the members. He shall represent it in legal proceedings, both as regards prosecution and defence. He shall open current accounts with banks in the name of the Association, sanction expenditure and manage the assets of the Association. He may delegate all or part of these powers to the Treasurer.
The Secretary, whose office shall normally and corresponding to tradition be in Athens, shall send out invitations, keep records of the deliberations of the General Assembly and sign the minutes together with the President. He shall be responsible for all administrative contacts between the various bodies of the Association, operating its web site.
The Treasurer shall keep the accounts of the Association and shall ensure the receipt of members’ subscriptions.
Art. 11: Outside the General Assemblies the Bureau is entitled to take all decisions not expressly within the purview of the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer or the General Assembly pursuant to the present statutes, provided that it reports to the following General Assembly. It may propose to the General Assembly the adoption or modification of an internal regulation conducive to the
good application of the statutes. Such regulations are adopted on the basis of a simple majority of the votes cast.
Art. 12: Amendments of the statutes, transformation or dissolution of the Association or merging with another Association may be decided only by an Extraordinary General Assembly, acting on a proposal listed as an item on the agenda and approved by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast. More than the half of the member A and B should be present or represented.
An Extraordinary General Assembly which decides upon the dissolution of the association shall designate one or more commissioners for the liquidation of the assets. After the assets have been realized and the liabilities discharged, an Extraordinary General Assembly for the winding up shall allocate the net assets to one or more analogous associations, acting on a proposal of the commissioners for the liquidation.
A decision to merge the Association with an analogous Association may only be taken by an Extraordinary General Assembly, acting on a report by a merger commissioner setting out the composition and value of the assets to be received or transferred. A draft merger agreement shall be drawn up between the Associations party to the merger and put to a vote by the Extraordinary General Assemblies. The agreement shall lay down in particular the terms under which the members of the association absorbed may become members of the absorbing association. Unless provided otherwise, the members of the absorbed association or associations shall automatically become members of the absorbing association, unless they notify the latter’s administrative body of their resignation within 90 days of the date of the merger. The merger shall be put into effect by the universal transfer of the assets of the absorbed association or associations to the absorbing association on the day of the last Extraordinary General Assembly deciding on the merger.
Art. 13: The General Assembly, acting on a proposal from members or from the Bureau, shall decide on creating or restoring Committees and on their composition. The chairpersons of the committees in question shall transmit to the Secretary, at least eight months before each General Assembly, detailed reports which shall be attached to the agenda.
Art. 14: The location of the Congress shall be decided by the General Assembly following a detailed discussion. National committees shall submit a detailed case for consideration with the Bureau at least eight months prior to the said General Assembly, and the Bureau will take all steps to ensure the transmission of candidacies to the national committees. It is then the task of the designated National Committee to set up an Organising Committee, which shall work in close collaboration with the Bureau.
Art. 15: Upon their adoption, the present statutes shall come into force immediately.