Public law and public policy in international commercial contracts and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2010: a brief outline

Abstract

Safeguarding public policy and solidarity through law is the central theme of public law scholarship.1 It can include some European or international aspects,2 and it also has a connection to private law.3 However, how can observance to the requirements of public policy and solidarity be ensured in cross-border private law contracts?4 Are public law and policy complied with, and even enforced, in the case of international commercial contracts? Experts in conflict of laws have addressed these extremely broad questions in many contributions on the conflict of public laws (sometimes called Internationales Öffentliches Recht)5 and, above all, on so-called overriding mandatory provisions.6 Overriding mandatory provisions now are defined in Article 9 of Regulation (EC) 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I Regulation).7 To put it briefly, one can say, overriding mandatory provisions of the law of the forum—the lex...