In the modern world, the idea of the persuasive force of a compilation of legal principles, definitions and rules, derived from thorough comparative research, has been adopted by a number of influential working groups operating at a global or regional level. The “UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC)” and the “Lando Principles on European Contract Law (PECL)” are the most prominent results of these efforts. More recently, this approach was adopted by the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the Research Group on Existing EC Private Law (“Acquis Group”).
The Center for Transnational Law (CENTRAL), University of Cologne, Germany, has developed the Transnational Law Digest & Bibliography (TLDB) which is the first of its kind to provide international practitioners and academics with an easy-to-use online knowledge & codification platform for transnational commercial law,the New Lex Mercatoria.
Today, transnational commercial law provides a vital means to meet the challenges of globalization. The decreasing significance of the sovereign state as lawmaker and the increasing significance of private rulemaking (“private governance”) which go along with the globalization of commerce and trade foster the development of “a-national”, i.e. transnational legal structures1. These transnational legal structures are being used in international contract and arbitration practice.
The Transnational Law Digest and Bibliography contains a comprehensive Digest of principles and rules of transnational commercial law with thousands of full text references from international arbitral case law, international doctrine and international uniform law.
Please visit the TLDB at: http://www.tldb.net/ and our Blog for on going experiences and research.