The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) was created in 1927 by a group of European lawyers convinced of the need for lawyers to establish international contacts.

Today, the UIA is an association open to all lawyers of the world, made up of both general and specialist practitioners, counting more than 200 bar associations, organisations or federations (representing nearly two million lawyers) as well as several thousand individual members from over 110 countries.

Its official languages are English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic and Portuguese. Its working languages are English, French and Spanish.