Choice of Law in Third-Millennium Arbitrations: The Relevance of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts

Abstract

Since their official presentation in May 1994, the UNIDROIT Principles on international commercial contracts have received various applications, either in the framework of institutional arbitration, or in the context of ad hoc arbitration. Arbitrators employ different methods in order to determine the “rules of law” applicable to the merits of the dispute. The present analysis aims to build up some models of application of transnational rules such as the UNIDROIT Principles, on the basis of patterns observed in arbitral jurisprudence. This will help to understand the use of the Unidroit principles in present-day international commercial arbitration and attempts to assess whether, and to what extent, their provisions may be seen as a contibution to contemporary private international law.