Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The New, New Lex Mercatoria, or, Back To The Future

2001; Oxford University Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1023/a

1875-8398

Q. L. Yves Fortier CC,

Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction

Commercial arbitration exists for one purpose only: to serve the commercial man. If it fails in this, it is unworthy of serious study. I TAKE these wise and wonderfully insightful words of our friend and colleague, Lord Michael Mustill,1 as the essential creed of the commercial arbitrator. The ‘… it's the economy, stupid’ of the professional world which we – practitioners, students, administrators, providers of international commercial arbitration – inhabit. That such a practical, common-sense view of the world is expressed not by a businessman but by a former Law Lord is noteworthy. That it is expressed in a text devoted to an assessment of the lex mercatoria is perhaps even more so. Lord Mustill understood, as I do, the risks inherent in a discussion of the lex mercatoria. To paraphrase: Few people are likely to welcome a discussion on the lex mercatoria. The common lawyer will...