Specific Features of Commercial and Contract Law in Latin America

Abstract

The article analyzes the dualism of private law in Latin America with the examples of civil and commercial codes of individual states of the continent. A specific feature of the legislation governing trade activities is the incorporation of the customs of the indigenous peoples inhabiting the territory of South America into the colonial legal systems of continental Europe, which led to the formation of dualistic principles of trade and contractual regulation. The purpose of this article was to identify the common and distinctive features of contractual regulation of commercial relations in different countries of Central and South America in terms of defining the concept of a contract, the subject of the contract, the procedure for concluding a contract and individual contractual structures. The specificity of the legal regulation of contractual relations in Latin America is analyzed by means of historical, comparative legal research methods and the method of content analysis of the provisions of normative acts. Civil and commercial codes, as well as other regulations of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and a number of other Latin American countries were used as empirical material. The following can be stated as the basic principles on which the Latin American system of Contractual law is built: the autonomy of participants in commercial relations, the social function of the contract and freedom of contract, good faith and equality of the parties in contractual obligations. The dualism of private law in Latin American countries leads to a different understanding of civil law contracts and commercial transactions concluded by participants in trade, which is reflected in the provisions of the civil and commercial codes and the definition of the subject of the contract. Separately, the article discusses the procedure for concluding an agreement through the offer-acceptance structure, as well as in the negotiation process.