Preface. 1. The World Scenario and the Approximation of Law. 2. Vehicles for the Harmonisation of Law. 3. Regionalisation and Standardisation of Law. 4. Regional Corporate Law Harmonisation: The EU and the Mercosur. 5. The Infrastructure of Capital. 6. The Phenomenon of Development: International and Regional Approaches to Banking and Financial Law. 7. Theories of the Company. 8. Corporate Governance. 9. International Legal Standards and the Inclusion of Emerging Countries in the Globalised Order: The Case Study of Brazil. 10. Conclusion: Legal Pluralism and the Creation of Standards within the Process of Globalisation¿Analytical Summary and Theoretical and Practical Implications. Bibliography.
In theory, the numerous existing formal instruments designed to unify or harmonize international commercial law should achieve the implied (and desired) end result: resolution of the legal uncertainty and lack of predictability in the legal position of traders. However, it is well known that they fall far short of such an outcome. This innovative book (based on a conference held at the University of Aarhus in October 2009) offers deeply considered, authoritative responses to important practical questions that have still not been answered comprehensively, and that need to be answered for the efficient conduct of international commerce and for the future development of international commercial law. These questions include: ; Can clearly preferred methods of unification and harmonization be identified? What are the benefits of achieving unification and harmonization by means of party autonomy and contract practice? Is it necessary first to harmonize some aspects of private international law? Which aspects of unification and harmonization should be formal, and which can remain informal? How should formal and informal measures interact? What conflicts are likely to arise, and what resolutions are available? Should tensions be seen as inevitable, positive, and necessary? Which of several international instruments are applicable, and what order of priority should apply? Sixteen different nationalities are represented, allowing for fruitful discussion across all major legal systems. Prominent scholars and experienced practitioners offer deeply informed insights into how to navigate the complex field of international commercial law with its multiplicity of instruments, and how to resolve or neutralize the possible defects of various different means of unification and harmonization of international commercial law. These insights and proposals are sure to be welcomed by interested academics, practitioners, judges, arbitrators, and businessmen throughout the world at global, regional, and local levels.
This book presents a comprehensive and systematic study of the principal aspects of the modern law of international commercial transactions. Based on diverse sources, including legislative texts, case law, international conventions, and a variety of soft-law instruments, it highlights key topics such as the international sale of goods, international transport, marine insurance, international finance and payments, electronic commerce, international commercial arbitration, standard trade terms, and international harmonization of trade laws. In focusing on the private law aspects of international trade, the book closely analyzes the relevant statutes, case law and the European Union (EU) and international uniform law instruments like the Rome I Regulation, the UN Convention on the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), UNCITRAL Model Laws; non-legislative instruments including restatements such as the UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts, and rules of business practices codified by the ICC such as the Arbitration Rules, UCP 600 and different versions of the INCOTERMS. The book clearly explains the key concepts and nuances of the subject, offering incisive and vivid analyses of the major issues and developments. It also traces the evolution of the law of international trade and explores the connection between the lex mercatoria and the modern law. Comprehensively examining the issue of international harmonization of trade laws from a variety of perspectives, it provides a detailed account of the work of major players in the field, including UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, ICC, and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Adopting the comparative law method, this book offers a critical analysis of the laws of two key jurisdictions—India and England—in the context of export trade. In order to stimulate discussion on law reform, it explains the similarities and differences not only between laws of the two countries, but also between the laws of India and England on the one hand, and the uniform law instruments on the other. Given its breadth of coverage, this book is a valuable reference resource not only for students in the fields of law, international trade, and commercial law, but also for researchers, practitioners and policymakers.
Transnational commercial law represents the outcome of work undertaken to harmonize national laws affecting domestic and cross-border transactions and is upheld by a diverse spectrum of instruments. Now in its second edition, this authoritative work brings together the major instruments in this field, dividing them into thirteen groups: Treaty Law, Contracts, Electronic Commerce, International Sales, Agency and Distribution, International Credit Transfers and Bank Payment Undertakings, International Secured Transactions, Cross-Border Insolvency, Securities Custody, Clearing and Settlement and Securities Collateral, Conflict of Laws, Civil Procedure, Commercial Arbitration, and a new section on Carriage of Goods. Each group of instruments is preceded by linking text which provides important context by identifying the key instruments in each group, discussing their purposes and relationships, and explaining the major provisions of each instrument, thus setting them in their commercial context. This volume is unique in providing the full text of international conventions, including the preamble - which is important for interpretation - and the final clauses and any annexes. In addition, each instrument is accompanied by a complete list of dates of signature and ratification by all contracting states, all easily navigated through the detailed tables of contents which precedes it. This fully-indexed work provides an indispensable guide for the practitioner or academic to the primary transnational commercial law instruments.
Standards are a feature of virtually all areas of trade in products and services. Yet, although standards may achieve an efficient economic exchange, they have discriminatory consequences for trading partners when governments formulate or apply them in such a way as to cause obstacles to trade, thus enrolling standards among the increasingly significant ‘non-tariff barriers’ regulated by the WTO. This unique and original study analyses the functions that standards fulfil in the market, their effect on trade, and the legal regime based on harmonization, equivalence and mutual recognition developed by the WTO to deal with standards. The author investigates the way in which both the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures Agreements regulate these three tools, and discusses key topics including: The definition of the concept ‘International Standard’ in the TBT Agreement. Guidelines on equivalence issued by organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health and the International Plant Protection Convention. Parallels between the EC mutual recognition regime and the WTO system. This is the first work on its subject. With its detailed and practical analysis of WTO law on standards, the book is a fundamental reference for practitioners, academics and policy makers in international trade law.
Harmonised and uniform international laws are now being spread across different jurisdictions and fields of law, bringing with them an increasing body of scholarship on practical problems and theoretical dimensions. This comprehensive and insightful book focuses on the contributions to the development and understanding of the critical theory of harmonisation. The contributing authors address a variety of different subjects concerned with harmonisation and the application of legal rules resulting from harmonisation efforts. This study is written by leading scholars engaged in different aspects of harmonisation, and covers both regional harmonisation within the EU and regional human rights treaties, as well as harmonisation with international treaty obligations. With comparative analysis that contributes to the development of a more general theory on the harmonisation process, this timely book will appeal to EU and international law scholars and practitioners, as well as those looking to future legal harmonisation in other regions in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
This title was first published in 2003. This volume contains essays by prominent commentators on topics in commercial law. It addresses the increasing harmonization of international commercial law and the essays demonstrate different methodologies used in analysing commercial law, such as economic and jurisprudential approaches.
The "Europeanization" of European private law has recently received much scrutiny and attention. Harmonizing European systems of law represents one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. In effect, it is the adaptation of national laws into a new supra-national law, a process that signifies the beginning of a new age in Europe. This volume seeks to frame the creation of a new European Common Law in the context of recent events in European integration. The work is envisioned as a guide and written in a research friendly style that includes text inserts and an extensive bibliography. The detailed analysis and research this volume accomplishes is invaluable to those scholars and lawmakers who are the next generation of European leaders.
