Party Autonomy and Regional Harmonization of Rules in International Commercial Arbitration

Abstract

In the last half of the twentieth century, the trend towards “world-wide harmonization of trade law” has increased steadily with the globalization of economies and the corresponding increase in transnational commerce. Throughout this period, efforts have emerged to unify and harmonize international commercial law in order to promote international trade. The two primary ways this was pursued during the twentieth century were unification of choice of-law rules and harmonization or unification of substantive rules.