Title: Non-state law in party autonomy – a European perspective

Authors: Zheng Sophia Tang

Addresses: School of Law, University of Aberdeen, Taylor Building, Aberdeen, AB24 3UB, Scotland, UK

Abstract: Non-state law refers to rules that do not belong to any sovereign state. Regardless of the increasing importance of non-state law in international transactions, the application of non-state law in court proceedings has not been clarified. In European Union, although the European Commission proposed that contractual parties should be allowed to choose |principles and rules of the substantive law of contract recognised internationally or in the community|, this proposal is not admitted in the final Rome I Regulation. This article considers the European development, discusses whether non-state law should be allowed as the governing law to a cross-border contract upon the parties| authorisation and provides suggestions for the appropriate treatment of non-state law in private international law.

Keywords: non-state laws; party autonomy; commercial contracts; legal rules; sovereign states; international transactions; court proceedings; European Union; EU; European Commission; contractual parties; legal principles; substantive laws; Rome I Regulation; EC Regulations; European Parliament; European Council; contractual obligations; governing laws; cross-border contracts; party authorisation; international law; private law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2012.043899

International Journal of Private Law, 2012 Vol.5 No.1, pp.22 - 39

Published online: 20 Sep 2014 *

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