The Englishman's Word as the Foreigner's Bond

Abstract

IMPERIALISM WAS already a dirty word in the 20th century and yet traces of 19th century colonialist attitudes survive in Anglo-American jurisprudence in the 21st century. The dominance of English as the language of international business combined with the commercial power of the United States has provided a platform for those attitudes to be globalized via the imposition of English and American law (particularly the law of the State of New York) to regulate the relations of citizens of neither nation for whom English is, at best, a second language. These two systems of law are increasingly a favoured artificial choice of law to govern contracts in international commerce. Of the two, English law appears to be stealing a march, backed by the particular success of UK law firms in ‘going global’ combined with a fear in the international business community of becoming embroiled in US-style litigation. In that environment,...