The Economic Factors Behind Legal Integration: A Jurimetric Analysis of the Latin American Experience

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.