Can It Be Done?: Adopting the Unidroit Principles Through Party Autonomy Under Omani Choice of Law Rules

Abstract

In May 2013 the Sultanate Decree number 29/2013 promulgated the Omani Civil Transactions Law (O.C.T.L) that contained several choice of law rules . Among them is art 20 that adopts the Party Autonomy as a choice of law rule for Contracts. This paper will examine whether art 20 of the O.C.T.L gives the contracting parties the freedom to choose the Unidroit principles, herein after the principles, as the law governing their contract and what are the constraints and legal bars that might exist under O.C.T.L. against adopting the principles.In part two I examine the wording of the art 20 to determine if it possible for the parties to a contract to choose the Principles as a non-state law and I will reach the conclusion that the art 20 does allow the selection of the principles as the law governing the contract . In Part three, I move towards examining the constraints that O.C.T.L. imposes on the parties' ability to chose the principles which are statutory restraints that stems from the existence of Omani special legislation and non-statutory restraints which are the traditional public policy defense and the duty to comply with Islamic Shariah. I will demonstrate that neither the Omani Public policy nor Islamic Shariah prevent the parties form selecting the principles if the Omani Courts adopted an open minded approach to choice of law in general.