This collection of essays provides a rich and contemporary discussion of the principle of pacta sunt servanda. This principle, which requires that valid agreements are to be honoured, is a cornerstone of contract law. Focusing on contributions from Asia, this book shows that, despite its natural and universal appeal, the pacta sunt servanda principle is neither absolute nor immutable. Exceptions to the binding force of contract must be available in limited circumstances to avoid hardship and unfairness. This book offers readers new comparative perspectives on the appropriate balance between contractual certainty and flexibility in an era of social instability. Expert authors, mostly from East and Southeast Asia, explore when their domestic legal systems allow exceptions from the binding force of contracts. Doctrines discussed include impossibility, frustration, change of circumstance, force majeure, illegality as well as rights of withdrawal. Other chapters consider the importance of the pacta principle in international law. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic feature strongly in the majority of contributions.

Over the past few decades, significant changes have occurred across capital markets. Shareholder activists have become more prominent, institutional investors have begun to wield more power, and intermediaries like investment advisory firms have greatly increased their influence. These changes to the economic environment in which corporations operate have outpaced changes in basic corporate law and left corporations uncertain of how to respond to the new dynamics and adhere to their fiduciary duties to stockholders. With The Corporate Contract in Changing Times, Steven Davidoff Solomon and Randall Stuart Thomas bring together leading corporate law scholars, judges, and lawyers from top corporate law firms to explore what needs to change and what has prevented reform thus far. Among the topics addressed are how the law could be adapted to the reality that activist hedge funds pose a more serious threat to corporations than the hostile takeovers and how statutory laws, such as the rules governing appraisal rights, could be reviewed in the wake of appraisal arbitrage. Together, the contributors surface promising paths forward for future corporate law and public policy.

Advocacy in international arbitration is the focus of this collection of articles emanating from the twentieth Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) held in Rio de Janeiro in 2010. The topics addressed by renowned arbitration practitioners and scholars include: effective advocacy in arbitration; the advocate's role at different stages of arbitration proceedings; the role of experts; arbitration advocacy and Constitutional law; and advocacy and ethics in international arbitration. The volume also contains a new approach to expert evidence - the Protocol on Expert Teaming - and closes with a proposal for an International Code of Ethics for Lawyers Practicing Before International Arbitral Tribunals.

This informative and accessible book reviews the core concepts of contract law and theory from an Anglo-American perspective. Larry A. DiMatteo deftly analyses the key principles, rules and frameworks which have shaped Anglo-American contract law, as well as highlighting important legislative acts that have changed and modernised its development.

For well over a decade, this prized guide has served practitioners handling the legal ramifications of international contracting projects. The fifth edition expands on issues discussed in the earlier one, along with new topics that continue to redefine the researching, drafting, and execution of international contracts. All the invaluable features of earlier editions are of course still here, including analysis of key contract issues unique to various types of contracting, common contract clauses, contract checklists, insights gleaned from actual cases and arbitral proceedings, and clear explanation of the principles of good contract drafting. The major relevant international conventions, model laws, pertinent national laws, legal guides, and other documents and instruments are all covered, with primary texts provided in the appendices. Some of the new issues and topics covered include: new potential causes of force majeure and hardship (pandemics and BREXIT); review of Incoterms 2020; new clauses covered (anti-slavery, exclusion, interpretation, no-waiver, sub-contracting, sustainability clauses, among others); rise of new international commercial courts; legaltech, smart contracts, and artificial intelligence; ethics; implementation of technology in legal practice; enforceability of penalty clauses; Internet sales and agency contracts; long-term contracts and goodwill compensation; data protection and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); alliance, collaboration, and cooperation agreements; noncompete and nonsolicitation clauses; e-mail disclaimers; and separation and release agreements. The book acts as a single-volume reference in the negotiating and drafting of international contracts and offers expert insights regarding the reasonableness of many contract clauses and the likelihood of their enforcement in a foreign jurisdiction. An adroit combination of contract theory and contract practice, the book continues to provide guidance to law practitioners and students alike. “International Contracting is an excellent single volume reference that highlights the different issues relating to a variety of contracts. I recommend it to drafting attorneys writing domestic as well as transborder contracts.” – Christopher E. Howard (complex commercial transactions and development projects), Managing Partner, Pierce Atwood LLP, Portland, Maine “The latest edition of Professor DiMatteo's International Contracting constitutes a broad yet detailed coverage of international contract law and laws, as well as international practice. It drills down into the level of detail that supplies invaluable practical guidance of the sort not to be found in other publications.” – Professor Michael G. Bridge, London School of Economics “International Contracting is an ideal source for practitioners whether of the civil or common law. It also provides a concise review of international contracting issues and practices for the scholar and student interested in this area of law. I highly recommend it as a general resource on the topic.” – Michel Cannarsa, Dean & Professor, Lyon Catholic University

This book analyses the complex system of contract law operating in the Greater Bay Area and examines the independent legal systems of Hong Kong, Macau and China in light of the region’s rapid economic integration. The book explores the differences between these systems in theory and in practice, and identifies the challenges and pathways to legal harmonisation in the region.

This book tackles one of the most challenging fields of research and practice in the current global trade environment: integrating doctrines of private and public law for the purpose of international commerce and trade. Traditional concepts of obligatory and proprietary claims and rights reach their limits when placed within an international context of litigation funding, liability and securitisation. Across disciplines, scholars and practitioners are seeking new ways of expanding and reconnecting novel products and services such as data; and the use of international dispute settlement with indispensable constitutional values and democratic processes is also growing. This book combines contributions on current issues in commercial contract and contract law, making an important contribution to the areas of substantive contract law and arbitration procedure that connect issues across disciplines. Exploring both substantive and procedural laws, the book explores unfair terms in non-consumer contracts, which is complemented by a broader contextual discussion of the regulation of platform operators in the European Union; while a discussion of the procedural role of public reporting of investment arbitration awards by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) expands on the procedural aspects of arbitration within the wider context of the rule of law debate. Debating policy issues in general private law reform, and including a juxtaposition of a traditionalist continuation-oriented approach and a call for radical reform of entrenched and outmoded private law concepts to suit global commerce, this book will be of interest to students, academics and practitioners working in the area of commercial contract law and arbitration.

This book provides a comparative study of contract law, examining the interaction of common law and civil law approaches to contract law. Drawing extensively upon English, French and European law, the book explores how the law of contract of Jersey, Channel Islands, has been influenced by both civil law and common law sources. It is argued that this jurisdiction is a striking example of comparative law in action, given that Jersey contract law is made up of a blend of common law and civil law approaches. Jersey law is premised upon a subjective approach to contracts, in which civil law concepts such as cause (rather than consideration) and vices de consentement are the foundational aspects, but is nonetheless highly influenced by the common law in areas such as remedies (damages, termination, etc). The book analyses a series of key issues from a comparative and European perspective, including the principles underlying contract law (comparing and contrasting civil and common law approaches), the formation of contract, requirements of reciprocity (cause vs consideration), the structure and approach of precontractual liability, the role of good faith in a mixed system, the architecture of remedies, and more.

This volume brings together diverse sets of standpoints on liberalism in an era of growing skepticism and distrust regarding liberal institutions. The essays in the volume: • Relate concerns for liberal institutions with classical themes in perfectionist politics, such as the priority of the common good in decision-making or the role of comprehensive doctrines. • Analyse how perfectionist intuitions about the political life affect our concepts of public reason or public justification. • Outline various moral duties we have toward other persons that underlie the liberal institutions or notions of rights functioning across the contemporary political landscape. • Explore various aspects of pluralism from within influential religious or philosophical traditions, applying insights from those traditions to issues in contemporary politics. The comprehensive volume will be of great interest to scholars, students, and researchers of politics, especially those in political philosophy and political theory.

After being almost untouched for over 200 years, the contract law section of the French Civil Code was overhauled in 2016 and 2018. The New French Law of Contract describes, explains and analyses the new general principles of contract law in the reformed Code in a concise and stimulating way. The areas covered include contract formation, validity, the interpretation and supplementation of terms, the regulation of unfair terms, privity of contract, change of circumstances, breach of contract and remedies. The book examines the ways in which the new articles affirm or depart from the provisions of the 1804 Code and pre-reform case law, giving special attention to changes that have proved to be controversial and the debates that surround them. It also considers the various influences that have shaped the reforms, in particular those from international contract law instruments such as the Principle of European Contract Law and the UNIDROIT Principles. Written from the standpoint of a common lawyer, the book is designed to help readers from a common law background to navigate the innovations in the reforms and the new French law of contract that emerges. It is essential reading for students, researchers, practitioners, law-makers and judges with an interest in comparative law.