• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.51
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• pp.101-131
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• 2011

The Governing Council of UNIDROIT at its 90th session adopted on 10 May 2011 the third edition of the Principles of International Commercial Contracts("UNIDROIT Principles 2010"). The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts first published in 1994 and in a second edition in 2004, are taken by legislators worldwide as a model for contract law reform and increasingly used in international contracting and arbitration practice, as well as by the courts to interpret and supplement the applicable domestic law. The UNIDROIT Principles are particularly useful to parties when negotiating and drafting international contracts. The new edition of the Principles, UNIDROIT Principles 2010, prepared by a group of experts from all over the world including representatives of numerous international organizations and arbitration centers. The UNIDROIT Principles 2010 contain new provisions on restitution in case of failed contracts, illegality, conditions, and plurality of obligors and obligees, while with respect to the text of the 2004 edition the only significant changes made relate to the Comments to Article 1.4.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.58
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• pp.3-33
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper is to examine the problems in exercising buyer's right to claim damages for the breach of contract by the seller in international sales contract and to suggest reasonable counter-measures. The main contents are as follows: First, this author analyzed the principles of the seller's liability for damages in detail and examined the methods for the calculation of damages on the basis of Arts.74~77. As these articles are found to be insufficient in practical application, this author further examined the UNIDROIT Principles(2004) to confirm whether these Principles can fill the gaps of CISG or not, which turned out their gap-filling functions. Second, this author tried to find any expected problems when the buyer resorts to the right to claim damages in case of the seller's breach of contract including the estimation of damages, the burden of proof, causation, the proof of appropriateness for avoidance, the proof of buyer's obligation to mitigate the loss and so on. The reason is that these problems may cause a lot of difficulties in real business. As result, many buyers have given up their reasonable rights to claim damages so far. Finally, from the buyer's perspective, this author would like to suggest a liquidated damage clause(LD Clause) which gives the buyer to received a specified sum in case of seller's non-performance and/or a demand guarantee(or standby L/C) which guarantees buyer to secure unconditional payment independent of the underlying contract. For these purposes, the buyer should try to insert the LD Clause and/or Guarantee Clause in the contract when the buyer and the seller negotiate the sales contract. Also there are a lot of considerations and limitations in using the LD Clause and the Guarantee Clause in their real business, mainly dependent up bargain power between the seller and the buyer, for which this author promise to examine in detail in the future.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.46
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• pp.61-104
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• 2010

The purpose of this work aims to analyse the principles of good faith under international transaction with CLOUT and UNILEX cases. Article 7(1) CISG sets the stage for the interpretation by promoting a uniform approach using good faith and the international charter of the convention. In other words, article 7(1) defines the purpose and the principle of interpretation and is applied to the Convention as a whole. As such, it also includes article 7(2), which goes beyond the big picture and settles the problems of gap filling. It is also important to understanding that the mandate of the CISG is to look for a solution, which is not only restricted to interpretation but extends to solving a problem. The problem in this work is to find out how gap filling is achieved and, because of the autonomous mandate of interpretation, to explain and understand its relationship with domestic law. The solution to the interpretation of article 7(2) must be found within the four corners of the CISG. To restate, article 7(2) describes two situations where gap filling is needed. First, if the matter is governed by the Convention but not expressly settled, then a gap must be filled in conformity with general principles on which it is based. Second, if the matter is not covered then the gap must be filled taking domestic law into consideration. There are two reasons why a matter may not be covered by the Convention. First and most obviously, it has been specifically exclude from the sphere of Application by the CISG itself, such as validity in article 4. Second, changes in business methods will lead to gaps. The United Nations has established a service known as CLOUT. This contains abstracts of hundreds of selected decisions of both courts and arbitration tribunals. And UNILEX is cosponsored by the Italian Centre for Comparative and Foreign Law Studies and UNIDROIT Contract Principles. The cases are in abstract format, but, when available, the full text of the case in the original language is also supplied.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.453-479
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• 2012

The increase in international trade is clearly reflected by litigation and arbitration. Despite the importance of international commercial transaction, until very recently little was known about how the law interacts with actual practice. The CISG obviously plays an important role, but we are concerned with using choice of law to resolve issue that the CISG leaves unresolved. The case law UPICC is now accessible by means of UNILEX, the database on international case law that focus on CISG cases. The courts and arbitration tribunals throughout the world are developing a growing body of international case law on issues not resolved by the CISG, though arising from transactions to which the CISG applies. The application of the CISG is obligatory due to its nature as hard law an international convention. However, UPICC are only restatements and more flexibility, comprehensive instrument than CISG. This article offers to promote the UPICC application from their present status as a mere soft law instrument through analysing UNILEX cases.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.45
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• pp.51-82
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• 2010

The "rules of private international law" or "conflict of law rules" work to determine the governing law, the law applicable to international contracts. These rules permit parties' autonomy to choose the law applicable to their contracts in cases of both litigations and arbitrations. In this regards, the present article examines parties' five options for the choice of the law governing their contracts, which the parties should consider when negotiating and drafting an international agreement. This means that parties in international contracting should check the contents of the law that they are to choose as the governing law before doing so. The first option is to submit the contract to its own law, which can be the safest and simplest solution generally. However this option is subject to the consent of the other party, and is not appropriate when the domestic law chosen contains mandatory rules strongly protecting the other party. Secondly, the option of choosing the other party's law is not preferable in general. Even though the other party is strong enough to succeed in insisting on applying its own law, the other party is advised to counter-offer a neutral solution by suggesting the application of a transnational set of rules and principles of international contract, such as Unidroit Principles. The third option to choose the law of a third country should be taken with the caution that it should be harmonized with either, in case of litigations, the international jurisdiction clause which makes the country chosen have the jurisdiction over the dispute arising under the contract, or, in case of arbitrations, the way of selection of the arbitrator who has good knowledge of the law chosen. The fourth option of submitting the contract to the lex mercatoria or the general principles of law including the Unidroit Principles can be a advisable solution when a dispute is designed to be submitted to experienced arbitrators. The final and fifth is to be silent on the choice of the governing law in contracting. This option can be usefully available by experienced negotiators who are well familiar with the conflict of laws rules and enables the parties to avoid the difficulties to agree on the governing law issue and leave it open until a dispute arises.