Albert Kritzer: Pioneer of Open Access to International Private Law

This essay explores the enormous contributions that Professor Albert H. Kritzer has made to the field of international commercial law through the creation of a unique and powerful database that explicates the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (ClSG)

Contract Formation in an Internet Age

Should the "mailbox" doctrine of contract acceptances be applied in technological contexts far beyond the nineteenth century context for which it was established? Among modern contracting parties, the e-mail inbox has largely replaced the postal mailbox and the near-instantaneous process of electronic communication can mimic the characteristics of a face-to-face discussion. Such technological advancements of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries pose a challenge to the doctrinal and normative rationales articulated by the Adams v. Lindsell court and other early "mailbox" rule advocates. Moreover, the advent of electronic communication has implications even for application of the "mailbox" precedent within the framework of postal and other traditional communication systems. Only a receipt-based contracting precedent, applied to technologies both new and old, can properly enhance inter-jurisdictional legal uniformity and incentivize efficient contracting behavior

Understanding the Non-adoption of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods in Nigeria

Globalisation has created new market opportunities for Nigerian traders, resulting in the growth of international trade in Nigeria. However, the opportunity of a wider market and a broader range of goods, means that Nigerian traders have to grapple with the complexities and transaction costs of foreign laws of different jurisdictions, which are a hindrance to trade. Given the above, there is a need for a uniform framework capable of regulating international trade transactions. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is capable of resolving such conflicts and reducing transaction costs. However, the CISG has not been adopted in Nigeria. In light of this, the thesis considers the reasons for the non-adoption of the CISG in Nigeria. The thesis evaluates the Convention to determine if it is successful based on established criteria. Using the legal transplant theories, the thesis draws up a typology to determine whether the CISG can be considered a successful transplant in Germany and U.S. where it has been adopted. The thesis then examines the possibility, and effects of transplanting the Convention into Nigeria. The thesis also measures the level of awareness of the CISG in Nigeria and the disposition of the key legal actors towards the Convention, which serves as a determinant of adaptability and receptivity of the CISG in Nigeria, where it is adopted. The thesis adopts a doctrinal approach, historical, socio-legal and comparative research methodologies in undertaking the research

Juridical gyroscopic orientation of transnational business negotiations

L'hypothèse de notre doctorat pose qu’il y a une meilleure moyen pour le droit de régler TBN. Pour cet amélioration, un cadre juridique alternatif est nécessaire pour le règlement de négociations commerciales transnationales [TBN] entre des parties privées dans le contexte de vente internationale de marchandises. La prémisse fondamentale réside dans la manière dont les négociations sont généralement mal comprise dans la complexité du pluralisme, contradictoires ou le chevauchement des régimes juridiques entraînant l'incohérence des remèdes de mesures pour les parties commerciales. Même les parties commerciales sophistiquées labeur d’un façon nébuleux de quand et comment les droits et obligations juridiques sont créés. Les parties souvent ne sont pas suffisamment anticiper les obstacles qui peuvent surgir, et comptent souvent sur des accords oraux ou incomplètes qui peut conduire à une interprétation erronée de l'étendue de leurs droits et de leurs obligations les uns envers les autres. La loi a un intérêt dans cette activité innée pour trois raisons : (1) pour protéger les exigences du marché en matière d'efficacité ; (2) en raison de son caractère opportuniste, pour orienter la conduite entre TBN parties; et (3) d'appuyer l'autonomie des parties. Nous mettrons l'accent sur l'expansion de la théorie juridique actuel des négociations dans la recherche d'une nouvelle théorie normative qui pourraient contribuer à l'amélioration du règlement de TBN. Le projet comprendra l'analyse de la théorie de la négociation juridique actuel pour atteindre un portrait de la façon dont le droit juridique vues négociations d'affaires. Nous avons observé la pauvreté des outils juridiques disponibles pour peser des conséquences juridiques de mouvements de négociation. Négociations tangibles peuvent se révéler dans diverses formes d'accords; certains qui sont reconnus par les arbitres si elles passent des tests de validité du contrat alors que d'autres omettent de produire la reconnaissance. Lorsque des accords apparaissent incomplètes, les arbitres sont obligés de refuser l'exécution des accords de négociation ou se tourner vers les rationalisations fictive. À l'inverse, des obligations juridiques au cours des négociations peut être interprétée dans le cadre général du droit des obligations qu'elles ont été prévues entre les parties ou non. Cette étude devrait mettre à jour les menaces de se heurter et normes contradictoires ainsi que des facteurs qui concilie les sources de réglementation juridique vers une culture marchande juridique mondial. L'éclairage d'une nouvelle compréhension des négociations peut être accompli par le biais d'une approche interdisciplinaire des stratégies opérationnelles et de perception, de même que l'examen de l'étique et les séquences comportementales de négociation émique identifiées par les scientifiques du comportement. Les patrons d'affacturage de négociations commerciales séquentiel normative peut fournir des éléments fondamentaux pour exposer l'intangibilité des négociations par la fusion des valeurs normatives émanant de l'autonomie des parties. Les négociations sont souvent considérées comme un phénomène inadapté en droit; voyageant entre les doctrines juridiques traditionnellement séparées. Remontant aux transformations historiques dans la recherche des racines des sources de réglementation peut s'éclairer les négociations à partir de " l'ombre de la loi " dans un modèle révélant l'expansion vers l'interdépendance et de la coopération. La compréhension des facteurs qui influent sur le système normatif que les parties présupposent tout en négociant contribueront ensemble à notre tridimensionnelle analyse de droit comparé. Une nouvelle conscience critique du portrait de négociations seront proposés par l'intermédiaire de l'application de Hogg's co-operative theory of contracts à des négociations, ouvrant la porte à une vision nouvelle de négociations. Configuration par défaut de normes de conduite par le biais d'une théorie de la négociation juridique normative pourrait éventuellement conduire à l'examen de règles sui generis pour surveiller l'évolution de notre société globale afin de la loi de fournir de l'efficacité et l'autonomie nécessaire titrisés par TBN parties. Entre-temps, l'autonomie des parties menant grâce à de nouveaux mécanismes de commerce que nous avons appelé "Bills of Negotiation [BON]", fournissant TBN parties avec des normes claires de communications qui fonctionnent à travers exprimé parti choix pour exprimer les intentions des parties, qui devraient soutenir les normes d'affaires et servir le droit d’inestimables de données empiriques et de preuves.The hypothesis of our doctorate posits that there is a better manner for law to regulate TBN. We posit to improve legal regulation of TBN that an alternative legal framework is necessary for the regulation of transnational business negotiations [TBN] between private parties in context of international sale of goods. The fundamental premise lies in the manner in which negotiations are commonly misunderstood within the complexity of pluralistic, conflicting or overlapping legal regimes causing inconsistent measurement and enforcement of remedies to business parties. Even the most sophisticated business parties toil with the nebulous line of when and how legal rights and obligations are created. Parties do not sufficiently anticipate obstacles that may arise, and often rely on oral or incomplete agreements which may lead to the misinterpretation of the extent of their rights and obligations to one another. The law has an interest in this innate activity for three reasons: (1) to protect market requirements of efficiency; (2) because of its opportunist nature, to guide conduct between TBN parties; and (3) to support party autonomy. We will be focusing on the expansion of current legal theory of negotiations in search of a new normative theory that could contribute to the improvement of regulation of TBN. The project will comprise an analysis of current legal negotiation theory to attain a legal portrait of how law views business negotiations. We have observed the poverty of legal tools available to weigh juridical consequences of negotiation movements. Tangible negotiations may reveal themselves in various forms of agreements; some that are recognized by adjudicators if they pass tests of validity of contract while others fail to produce recognition. When agreements appear incomplete, adjudicators are forced to either deny enforcement of negotiating agreements or turn to fictitious rationalizations. Conversely, legal obligations during negotiations may be construed within the general scope of the law of obligations whether they have been intended between the parties or not. This study is expected to reveal the threats of colliding and conflicting norms as well as factors that reconcile the legal regulatory sources towards a global legal merchant culture. Illuminating a new understanding of negotiations can be accomplished through an interdisciplinary glimpse of business strategies and perception, along with examination of the etic and emic negotiating behavioral sequences identified by behavioral scientists. Factoring patterns of normative sequential business negotiations may provide fundamental elements to expose the intangibility of negotiations by amalgamating normative values emanating from party autonomy. Negotiations are often considered a phenomenon misfit in law; traveling between traditionally separated legal doctrines. Reaching back to historical transformations in search of the roots of the regulatory sources may illuminate negotiations from the “shadow of the law” into a model revealing the expansion into interdependency and cooperation. Comprehension of the factors that influence the normative frameworks that parties presuppose while negotiating together will contribute to our tri-dimensional comparative law analysis. A new critical awareness of the portrait of negotiations will be proposed through the application of Hogg’s co-operative theory of contracts to negotiations, opening the door to a fresh vision of negotiations. Setting default standards of conduct through a normative legal negotiation theory may eventually lead to the consideration of sui generis rules to monitor our evolving global society in order for law to provide the securitized efficiency and autonomy required by TBN parties. Meanwhile, party autonomy may seize leadership through new trade mechanisms which we have termed "Bills of Negotiations [BON]", providing TBN parties with transparent standards of communications that operate through expressed party choice to record parties’ intentions, which are expected to support business norms and serve law with invaluable empirical data and evidence

The alignment of the Saudi legal system with the international rules of electronic commerce

This thesis deals with fundamental questions of compatibility andadaptation in the regulation of electronic commerce as it impacts on the normsand precepts of Islamic law. It finds that in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, theresponse of the religious and civil authorities to the realignment of its laws ofcontract, in order to encompass the innovations and changes implicit in theelectronic environment, have been inhibited by misgivings about the nature ofthe electronic environment itself and by fears that some of the protectiveaspects of traditional contract formation will be lost.Based upon a detailed comparison of the various stages and components ofthe electronic and traditional contract, the thesis finds that the principlesunderlying Islamic law are not violated or substantively threatened by the newforms. It is shown that laws and treaties, created at an international level ofscrutiny and discussion, are now broadly in place and accepted by most of the‘developed’ world, with necessary allowance being made for future innovationand change.The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is recommended, can only make progressin this field by a policy of greater engagement, both in respect of the nature ofthe electronic contract itself, and also with the arbiters of compromise in bodiessuch as the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. It finds this progress to be essential to the health and well-being of Saudi society as awhole, and it suggests that any misgivings currently felt by the nation’slegislators are based more on misapprehension than on objective realities

International sales contracts in Congolese law : a comparative analysis

To regulate and facilitate are the main functions of legal rules. These purposes are achieved by a harmonised legal system by which the law becomes identical in numerous jurisdictions. The process to unify the law of sale internationally started in the 1920s and culminated, in 1988, in the implementation of the CISG. This Convention intends to provide clarity for most international sales transactions by regulating the formation of contracts, and the rights and obligations of the seller and the buyer resulting from the contract. The CISG has these days enjoyed much ratification and influenced a number of legislation reforms worldwide. Despite the role it played during the drafting process of the CISG, the DRC has not yet ratified it. Instead, the country continued to rely, until recently, on colonial legislations which had become out-dated, and inadequate to meet modern international sales contracts requirements. The situation appears to have been improved a year ago as the effect of the adoption of OHADA law whose Commercial Act is largely inspired by the CISG. Because the introduction of OHADA law in the DRC is very recent, this study intends to assess the current state of Congolese sales law by comparing it with the CISG and South African law, which is non-CISG but modernised. The comparative study aims at establishing whether current Congolese law, as amended by OHADA law, is sufficient or has shortcomings; if it has some, it aims to identify those shortcomings, and make suggestions for their improvements. After discussion, it has been discovered that the ratification of OHADA law has significantly improved Congolese domestic sales law. Given that there remain certain unresolved shortcomings in Congolese international sales law, however, the study ends by a proposal for the accession of the DRC to the CISG in order to fill them.Mercantile LawLL. D

Enforceability of Arbitral Awards Containing Interest - A Comparative Study between Sharia Law and Positive Laws

The dynamics of our globalised world open the way for international trade and transactions between different countries; this may lead to conflicts in laws where transactions and trade may be subject to different legal systems. One of the biggest issues in international commercial law is disputes over the charging of interest, for example with regard to late payment, interest-based loans, or compensation for damages. Interest disputes are considered to be a complex area of law and even more complex in the international field. At the international level, interest claims may be connected to many areas of commerce and thus governed by various laws, which are different from one country to another; moreover, each country has its own interest rate and such rates are changeable according to the nature of law and economics under some jurisdictions. Furthermore, the concept of interest itself is affected by influences such as religious beliefs and economic, political and cultural trends. Interest can be treated as a substantive or a procedural matter. The settlement of these disputes therefore faces difficulties. Arbitration, as a method for settlement of disputes, is characterised by special features that assist in resolving these issues; but it faces some obstructions, especially in international commercial arbitration. The practices of arbitral tribunals and national courts in this regard are different. The results of different interpretations, approaches, and theories with regard to arbitration, at the pre-arbitration, during arbitration and post-arbitration stages, may also differ widely due to the diversity of financial and legal systems such as Common Law, Civil Law and the Islamic legal system – Sharia Law – across different countries. Each legal system has a different methodology and theories, even within an individual country under one legal system, and a state within a federal system has its own laws, which may have different interpretations in this respect. The New York Convention of 1958 on enforcing foreign arbitral awards was established in favour of arbitral awards and for the purpose of unifying international rules of arbitration. This Convention provides some procedural and substantive rules for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, but also provides some grounds for refusal. These rules have been affected by different interpretations under different jurisdictions and legal systems, which lead to different perspectives on the matter of charging interest and settlement by arbitration. The outcome of applying the NYC under these interpretations often has the opposite of its intended effect: the rejection of foreign arbitral awards. Due to such ambiguities, courts occasionally intervene in arbitration in all its stages. The interventions of national courts occur in three stages: enforcement of the arbitration agreement, enforcement of the contract under the applicable law to the agreement, and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award. The confusion between substantive and procedural laws also creates confusion with respect to public policy, non-arbitrability and enforceability. In addition, there may be a lack of clarity on the scope of arbitration with respect to the parties’ agreement, whether or not the parties have agreed to the interest rates and periods and whether or not they have agreed to the authority of the arbitrator. These issues affect the enforceability of an arbitration agreement, the law applicable to the disputed contract, the freedom of parties, the authority of the arbitrators and the enforceability of the awarded interest. The thesis studies how arbitral awards containing interest have been interpreted across the three aforementioned legal systems under the NYC 1958 in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, England, France, and the US and the enforceability of such awards