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The Economic Factors Behind Legal Integration: A Jurimetric Analysis of the Latin American Experience
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Abstract
This paper shows that the international harmonization of commercial legal rules and commercial legal standards in Latin America have been the result of very specific legal and economic country-specific factors. The paper proposes that international legal harmonization within a regional bloc of countries is a function of the convergence of three broad conditions: (1) first, the a priori international country-to-country compatibility in the form and scope of their legal rules applied to domestic commercial transactions; (2) second, the emergence and growth of intra sectoral international markets supported by foreign direct investment; and (3) third, the emergence and growth of domestic trade-related industries seeking compatible legal rules in their exporting markets abroad. A jurimetric model is introduced in Part III showing that the drive to seek international legal harmonization has been explained by these specific economic and legal domestic factors.