Uniform Private Law Conventions and the Law of Treaties

Abstract

The international unification of private law avails itself of several types of legal instruments. In some areas we find uniform commercial terms drafted by private institutions like the International Chamber of Commerce; examples are the International Commercial Terms or Incoterms relating to sales of goods and commodities or the Uniform Customs and Practices for Letters of Credit. In more recent years model laws such as the Uncitral Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration have been submitted to the global business community. Yet another type of unification instrument is the catalogue of Principles for International Commercial Contracts drafted by the Unidroit Institute for the International Unification of Private Law. But the international treaty is by far the most important vehicle for the unification of private and commercial law. At first sight this observation is surprising since treaties essentially provide for rights and obligations between states and other subjects of international law while private law deals with legal relations between individuals and undertakings. It may be questioned whether a treaty is an appropriate instrument for this purpose. The unbiased observer may get the impression that the international community has used a wrong tool for more than a century.