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Lex mercatoria

Author

Listed:
  • Gralf-Peter Calliess
Abstract
Lex mercatoria or Law Merchant (‘LM’) is said to be the self-made law of international commerce. According to its proponents, LM is an autonomous legal order that not only supplements state commercial law, but works as a substitute for it. The ‘ancient’ LM, which accompanied the commercial revolution in late medieval Europe, is taken as a blueprint for ‘new’ LM, a transnational law that develops in international commercial arbitration to govern modern global commerce. According to its opponents, ancient LM as a uniform customary law of Europe never existed. Rather it was dreamed-up in order to support the neo-liberal agenda of new LM. This paper investigates the historical and empirical foundations of these claims in the three dimensions of transnational dispute resolution, norm making, and enforcement. It is concluded that truly autonomous transnational legal regimes are industry-specific exceptions, where socio-economic sanctions are formally organized. Transnational commercial law in general is characterised by a hybrid mode of governance, which combines institutions of private (norms, arbitration, and social sanctions) and public (laws, courts, and enforcement) origin. However, the latter are disembedded from their domestic context to a considerable extent.

Suggested Citation

  • Gralf-Peter Calliess, 2015. "Lex mercatoria," ZenTra Working Papers in Transnational Studies 52 / 2015, ZenTra - Center for Transnational Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zen:wpaper:52
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    File URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2597583
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Law Merchant; international commercial arbitration; transnational law; cross-border contracts; international trade; private international law; conflict of laws; contract enforcement; general principles of law; party autonomy; trade usage; standard form contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K49 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Other
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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