Lipovtsev V.N. Choice of law within lex mercatoria

Abstract: Lex mercatoria is an important element of the modern international private law, which represents a forming system of norms of non-governmental origin aimed at regulating the international commercial turnover. There is a predominant opinion within the science of private international law that lex mercatoria represents an alternative to the traditional to private international law choice of laws method of legal regulation and that lex mercatoria cannot be considered as the source of confl ict of laws. Based on the content of the norms of international contracts and court rulings, the author attempts to demonstrate that this notion cannot be held as unequivocally correct. The question of choice of law within lex mercatoria has yet to be exhaustively studied in the modern private international law studies. This article shows that lex mercatoria does indeed contain elements of choice of law and therefore, lex mercatoria can be viewed as the source of confl ict of laws.

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