Abstract

Commentators credit international arbitration with the development of a new law merchant - general principles of law and trade usages that govern transnational commercial transactions. Supporters tout the new law merchant as enabling businesses to contract out of inefficient national laws. Critics fear that the new law merchant undercuts the regulatory authority of national governments. Implicit in both views is an empirical assumption: that a significant number of parties contract for application of transnational law in their international commercial contracts. This ...