In this paper, intended as a chapter for a study book, attention is given to the notion of harmonisation, its operation in the area of private law and the extent to which harmonisation of private law rules contributes to the development of the internal market

This paper looks at the current status and role of specific commercial contract law within a setting of international and European contract law reform projects. It recapitulates the value and necessity of a special contract law for merchants and discusses critically the terminology and doctrine...

It is a widely held assumption that sophisticated parties prefer arbitration over litigation in international agreements for three reasons. First, the flexibility granted by arbitration would allow parties to write dispute settlement clauses that are tailored to their individual preferences....

The use of mobile communication devices like mobile phones, smartphones, tablet computers or notebooks with access to the internet has become an everyday phenomenon in today's business world. However, whenever mobile communications are used for purposes of contract formation, i.e. the mobile...

The use of standard contracts is usually explained by generic transaction costs. In a model where more resourceful parties can distort enforcement, we show that standard contracts reduce enforcement distortions by simplifying judicial interpretation of preset terms, training judges on a subset...

Why do lawyers in some jurisdictions continue to ‘automatically’ exclude the 1980 UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in their choices of law for international sales contracts? Why do lawyers in other jurisdictions approach the decision very differently? Why...

Regulation of economic activity is ubiquitous around the world, yet standard theories predict it should be rather uncommon. I argue that the ubiquity of regulation is explained not so much by the failure of markets, or by asymmetric information, as by the failure of courts to solve contract and...

This book adopts the proposition that it is possible to the customs to be sources of contractual obligations. To support that premise, it was necessary to seek jurisprudential (arbitration and litigation) and comparative basis. Even more, due to contract law internationalization, customary...

This report and the model contract clauses that it contains are an effort to help companies provide legally effective and operationally likely human rights protections for workers in international supply chains. The report is the product of the Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in...