The conference will take place on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 October 2009, at Aarhus University, Denmark.
How Conventions, Principles, Model Contracts and other Formal Instruments Interact with each other and their Relation to Party Autonomy and Contract Practice.
The unification and harmonization of international commercial law is a well-known phenomenon and is facilitated by different means, e.g. by adopting Conventions like the CISG (The Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods), by Directives in the EU, by Principles like the UPICC (UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts) and the PECL (the Principles of European Contract Law) or by way of international model contracts, e.g. the ICC Model International Sale Contract. In this way, a formal reference for unification or harmonization is created – and theoretically this should promote the end result: a uniform or harmonized law for international commercial transactions.
However, the result is not always as intended e.g. because the surrounding background law and different legal traditions do not always support a uniform application of the different formal instruments. Furthermore, party autonomy is playing an important role in this context – e.g. by way of choice of law and jurisdiction and by way of implementing principles or model contracts into the contract. International contract practices, usages and standard terms also play an important role as “informal instruments” in the development of uniform or harmonized international commercial law, simply by the way it forms an informal uniform or harmonized law in practice. This is often referred to as Lex Mercatoria or the like.
In this context, it is important to consider whether there should be a preferred way of developing a uniform or harmonized International Commercial Law, how different means of unification and harmonization of international commercial law interact with each other and how conventions, principles etc. interact with party autonomy and contract practice. What are the benefits of a more formal way of harmonization and unification? What are the benefits of unification and harmonization by means of party autonomy and contract practice? How do these formal and informal ways of unification and harmonization interact and how do they compete? Is there a preferred way of harmonization or is it impossible to decide which method should be the preferred one? Should the interaction and tension be seen as a positive and necessary step in the further development of a uniform or harmonized law? Will the different international instruments rather give rise to new complicated questions, i.e. which of several international instruments are applicable or what order of priority should apply?
Join this conference as some of the most prominent researchers present and discuss the recent and future trends in the unification and harmonization of International Commercial Law.
The conference is a coorporation between School of Law, Aarhus University and Department of Business Law,
Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University.
The group behind the conference is:
Professor Morten M. Fogt
Department of Private Law
School of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
Aarhus University
Associate professor René Henschel
Department of Business Law
Centre for International Business Law
Aarhus School of Business
Aarhus University
Professor Hans Henrik Edlund
Department of Business Law
Centre for International Business Law
Aarhus School of Business
Aarhus University
Conference Certificate for Danish Lawyers
The conference meet the demands for continuing education in "Bekendtgørelse om løbende obligatorisk efteruddannelse for advokater og advokatfuldmægtige" as well as "FSR's Retningslinjer for obligatorisk efteruddannelse".
The conferences amounts to 13 lessons, each of 45 minutes duration.
A course certificate will be issued and handed out at the end of the conference.