• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.25
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• pp.41-71
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• 2005

"UNIDROIT Principles 2004" focused on an enlargement rather than a revision. An additional Section or Chapter so to speak, which are about, the Authority of a Agents, Third Party Rights, Set-off, Assignment of Rights, Transfer of Obligations and Assignment of Contracts, and Limitation Periods have been added, while the only change of substance made to the 1994 Edition, apart from two paragraphs in the Preamble, and three new provisions in Chapter 1 and 2 which are necessary to adapt the Principles to the needs of electronic contracting. The Principles which have the nature of the restatement of international uniform laws (for example CISG) are continuous exercise. Therefore we should note whether in the future our concerns would be on a additional topics on a improvement of the current text by monitoring the reception of the "UNIDROIT Principles 2004" in practice, and the application by contracting parties. The purposes of the Principles may be classified into three ; the rules of law governing the contract, means of interpreting and supplementing international uniform law or domestic law, or models for national and international legislator. Among them, the function of governing law may be applied by the express choice by the parties or by the implied choice like "general principles of law" or "les mercatoria", and it may be applied in the absence of any choice of law by the parties. Among there importance functions, this writer would like to emphasize the function to supplementing international uniform law instruments. The reason is that the CISG which has been established as an international uniform sales act and to which our country would be a contracting State from March, 2005, needs a lot of gap-filling. For this purpose it is advisable the parties to insert following provisions in their contract. "This contract shall be governed by the CISG, supplemented when necessary by the UNIDROIT Principles 2004" Thus success in practice of the UNIDROIT Principles over the last then years has surpassed the most optimistic expectations. It is hoped that the 2004 Edition of the UNIDROIT Principles will be just as favorably received by legislators, business persons, lawyers, arbitrators and judges and become even better known and more widely used throughout the World.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.12
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• pp.65-84
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• 1999

During the past few decades, we have witnessed three approaches to overcome the legal disparities between trading countries: - determining the individual governing law in accordance with the conflict of laws principle; - unifying and harmonizing private international law into uniform rules and substantive laws under the auspices of ICC, UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT and various NGOs ; and - drafting model laws like the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce and promoting member countries to enact them. Against this backdrop, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the process by which it was adopted, established the benchmark for the unification of commercial law. The CISG, completed in 1980, merged civil and common law concepts and came into force in 1988 after a certain number of countries endorsed the treaty. Besides the CISG, the U.N. Limitations Convention and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Law, to name a few, have attempted to set cross-border legal norms and standards in the international business transactions. However, since the advent of computer-based commerce, there have emerged all-out efforts to establish uniform rules before national legal systems have been developed. As a consequence, the Model Law on Electronic Commerce has become a specimen legislation covering functional equivalents of paper-based writing and signature. For the credit enhancement exemplified by the Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (ICC Publication No.458), the UNCITRAL prepared the U.N. Convention on Independent Guarantees and Stand-by Letters of Credit, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1995 but remains still not effective as only two countries have ratified this treaty so far. In this connection, two draft conventions underway at UNIDROIT and UNCITRAL deserve our attention as the probability of unification in the Korean Peninsula is mounting. They are to create security interests for commercial finance in moveable equipment and accounts receivable. The UCC-type security rights are regarded to be useful to enable the North Koreans with limited properties to borrow from the banks.

• 한국무역상무학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.9-40
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• 2004

"UNIDROIT Principles 2004" focused on an enlargement rather than a revision. An additional Section or Chapter so to speak, which are about, the Authority of a Agents, Third Party Rights, Set-off, Assignment of Rights, Transfer of Obligations and Assignment of Contracts, and Limitation Periods have been added, while the only change of substance made to the 1994 Edition, apart from two paragraphs in the Preamble, and three new provisions in Chapter 1 and 2 which are necessary to adapt the Principles to the needs of electronic contracting. The Principles which have the nature of the restatement of international uniform laws (for example CISG) are continuous exercise. Therefore we should note whether in the future our concerns would be on a additional topics on a improvement of the current text by monitoring the reception of the "UNIDROIT Principles 2004" in practice, and the application by contracting parties. The purposes of the Principles may be classified into three ; the rules of law governing the contract, means of interpreting and supplementing international uniform law or domestic law, or models for national and international legislator. Among them, the function of governing law may be applied by the express choice by the parties or by the implied choice like "general principles of law" or "les mercatoria", and it may be applied in the absence of any choice of law by the parties. Among there importance functions, this writer would like to emphasize the function to supplementing international uniform law instruments. The reason is that the CISG which has been established as an international uniform sales act and to which our country would be a contracting State from March, 2005, needs a lot of gap-filling. For this purpose it is advisable the parties to insert following provisions in their contract. "This contract shall be governed by the CISG, supplemented when necessary by the UNIDROIT Principles 2004" Thus success in practice of the UNIDROIT Principles over the last then years has surpassed the most optimistic expectations. It is hoped that the 2004 Edition of the UNIDROIT Principles will be just as favorably received by legislators, business persons, lawyers, arbitrators and judges and become even better known and more widely used throughout the World.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.17
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• pp.7-35
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• 2002

In many international financing transactions Korean companies are required to issue a guarantee. Thus far, however, legal issues on international guarantees have not been fully discussed in Korea. This is partly because most of the international guarantees are governed by a foreign law such as English law or the laws of the State of New York. In this articles the author examines major concepts or terms and conditions of a typical international guarantee, e.g., language on consideration, primary obligor, joint and several guarantee, unconditional and irrevocable guarantee, continuing guarantee, right of subrogation, representations and warranties, covenant or undertaking, currency indemnity, assignment, participation, governing law and jurisdiction clause, etc. For reference, standard forms of a guarantee and a standby letter of credit are attached to the article. In examining the terms and conditions, the author compares them with similar or equivalent concepts under Korean law. The author further discusses some Korean law issues that may arise under international guarantees governed by a foreign law. These issues include the application of the ultra vires doctrine under Article 34 of the Civil Code of Korea, the validity of an international guarantee which a Korean company has issued in violation of the guarantee ceiling set under Article 10 of the Law on Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade of Korea and the validity of an international guarantee which a Korean party has issued in violation of the Foreign Exchange Transaction Law. In addition, the author discusses some issues under a so-called independent guarantee and a standby letter of credit. In this regard, reference is made to the Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantee (URDG), International Standby Practices (ISP98) and the Convention on Independent Guarantees and Stand-by Letters of Credit adopted by the United Nations in 1995. Finally, the author examines major terms and conditions of typical comfort letters and discusses some legal issues, such as the binding force of the comfort letter. In dealing with the issues the author underscores that to the extent the issues are not properly dealt with by an international norm such as Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits or ISP 98, the issues must be analyzed by reference to the governing law of the relevant instrument.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.34
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• pp.27-52
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• 2007

As in more than half of the litigated cases, non-conformity of the goods is alleged by the buyer and, hence, the question aries of whether the buyer has given notice within a reasonable time and is thus allowed to rely on the lack of conformity at all, differences in interpreting the meaning of "reasonable time" in Article 39(1) CISG endanger uniformity of international sales law in a core area. This uniform interpretation of the "reasonable time" in Article 39(1) CISG can, however, not be achieved by merely making recommendations to courts and arbitral tribunals that case law from other CISG jurisdictions should be considered. This can at best lead to confusing results. As you know, the determining of reasonable time is depending on the circumstances concerned with the particular case. So the term 'reasonable time' has proven too imprecise due to its flexibility without defined uniform scale to assist the practitioners in a uniform application of Art. 39(1). Therefore I suggested the factors that influenced the determining of the reasonable time. The factors currently influencing whether an Art. 39(1) notice is given within reasonable time in international practice are: any international trade usage and practices, the nature of the remedy chosen by buyer, the nature of the goods delivered and the mode of dealing with the goods.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.69
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• pp.127-151
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• 2016

UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts(PICC) was published in 1994. PICC has been functioned as a guideline of international commercial contracts, an applicable law to govern a contract by the agreement of the parties to a contract, general principles of law and lex mercatoria. In addition, PICC has a role of interpreting or supplementing international uniform law instruments as well as domestic laws, and also has served as a model for national and international legislations. PICC has been accepted as a authoritative source of knowledge of international trade usages of international commercial contracts to the arbitral tribunal rather than domestic court because it excluded the characteristics of hard law at the drafting stage. This article dealt with the rule on gross disparity of validity which fall outside the scope of UN Convention on Contract for the International Sale of Goods(CISG), which has obtained a leading legal position of uniform law in international sales of good. In other words, PICC suggests a series of meaningful solutions to the issue of gross disparity of contract which is the most complicated among legal disputes occurring during the process of conclusion of contact and also extremely different and diverse between legal systems. This article covered the issue of gross disparity of contract at the conclusion of contact and suggested the legal basis of several rules related to the gross disparity by analysing gross disparity rule of PICC. Furthermore, this article suggested legal check points or implication as well as interpretation and evaluation on doctrine of laesio enormis and undue influence or unconscionability. This article also dealt with a comparative analysis with Principles of European Contract Law(PECL) and Common European Sales Law(CESL) which have important legal positions in the area of international commercial contract as well as in terms of close relationship to PICC by linking with recent court or arbitral tribunal rulings.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.16
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• pp.331-359
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• 2001

Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (1999) Drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The Act allows the use of electronic records and electronic signatures in any transaction, except transactions subject to the Uniform Commercial Code. The fundamental purpose of this act is to remove perceived barriers to electronic commerce. The Act's a procedural statute. It does not mandate either electronic signatures or records, but provides a means to effectuate transactions when they are used. The primary objective is to establish the legal equivalence of electronic records and signatures with paper writings and manually-signed signatures. With regard to the general scope of the Act, the Act's coverage is inherently limited by the definition of "transaction." The Act does not apply to all writings and signatures, but only to electronic records and signatures relating to a transaction, defined as those interactions between people relating to business, commercial and governmental affairs. The exclusion of specific Articles of the Uniform Commercial Code reflects the recognition that, particularly in the case of Articles 5, 8 and revised Article 9, electronic transactions were addressed in the specific contexts of those revision processes. In the context of Articles 2 and 2A the UETA provides the vehicle for assuring that such transactions may be accomplished and effected via an electronic medium. At such time as Articles 2 and 2A are revised the extent of coverage in those Articles(Acts) may make application of this Act as a gap-filling law desirable. Similar considerations apply to the recently promulgated Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). Another fundamental premise of the Act is that it be minimalist and procedural. The general efficacy of existing law, in an electronic context, so long as biases and barriers to the medium are removed, confirms this approach. The Act defers to existing substantive law. Specific areas of deference to other law in this Act include: i) the meaning and effect of "sign" under existing law, ii) the method and manner of displaying, transmitting and formatting information in section 8, iii) rules of attribution in section 9, and iv) the law of mistake in section 10.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.9
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• pp.223-250
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• 1996

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.21
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• pp.129-151
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• 2003

Nowadays even if environment of international commercial transaction is changing quickly municipal law could not meet with such change accordingly. So far, however, efforts towards unification have prevailingly taken the form of binding instruments, such as non-national or supranational legislation, international conventions or international model laws. Among them, the UNIDROIT Principles with parties' autonomous and yet non-binding character do not only meet the substantive requirements of a true law merchant. In addition they also counter some of the main points of criticism against the modern lex mercatoria. As such the Principles constitute a cornerstone in the lex mercatoria debate and may become the heart of the new lex mercatoria. The purpose of this article is to ask whether there could be applied the Principles in international commerce. For the purpose it is to investigate when the Principles are applied in international commerce and how effectively the Principles are applied for the decision in international commercial disputes. Even though the Principles are used for reference by parties involved for the voluntary regulation of their contract, it is sufficiently expected that the Principles are to be a stepstone of uniform contract law in international commerce. Until now cases of appling the Principles are not satisfied with its expectation as a source of non-legislative means of unification or harmonization of law. Given the party's autonomy in the contract, this is among other things because business parties are strongly tend to observe their national laws in their international commerce. And also, even though there are a number of neutral and uniform regulations for international commercial contracts, parties do not often recognize their usefulness with being up to expectation. In order to explore the applicability of the Principles a number of cases of ICC International Court of Arbitration and others are quoted.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.13
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• pp.303-328
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• 2000

International Trade has led to the increase of the demand of international transport, and also the development of transport vehicles has been promoting the volumes of international trade. Therefore, the development of international transport not only incurs claims concerning transportation but also establishes various international rules to settle the claims between the shippers and the carriers in the course of transport. With a view to settling the claims successfully, the men who are concerned in the transport have to know the principle and scope of carrier's Liability. In this paper, I would like to find out the principle of Liability for the shippers. Therefore, I classify the Liability principle of the international transporter under the UNs Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Good(1980) and UNCTDAD/ICC Rules(1991) in three system - Network Liability System, Uniform Liability System and Modified Uniform Liability System.