The Scope And Nature Of The International Commercial Custom

This article discusses some theoretical problems about the international commercial custom and thinks that the international commercial custom is autonomous rule with legal force which has come from such fields as international trade, transportation, payment, insurance, arbitration etc. The custom is an important source of " new businessman law " independent of domestic law system. Its legal force stems from " agreeing together " of members in international business society . On this basis, this article analyses its nature shown in our legislation, and points out that these legislative actions mean that the effect of international commercial custom to our domestic law has been recognized . Finally ,some defects in our legislation are analysed, and measures to improve these are proposed. This article falls into four chapters:Chapter one analyses three concepts-usage, custom and customary law .It also analyses the characteristic of the international commercial custom.Chapter two defines the concept of international commercial custom with "custom" , "business" and "international" ; and then restates its history ; finally analyses the five main forms of the international commercial custom.Chapter three analyses three elements of the legal force : the liability , validity and external force, and thinks that as a kind of autonomous rule , the international commercial custom have the three elements as above-mentioned. Then, it concludes that the international commercial custom is a behavior rule with legal force , and that it should seek to be recognized by the domestic law in order to obtain the guarantee of forcing strength on the domestic law.Chapter four analyses the characteristic , nature and defects of our legislation on the international commercial custom , and thinks that the legislative actions in our country means acknowledging the effect of the international commercial custom in our domestic law .We should improve our legislation from two aspects rone is to expand the applying scope of the international commercial custom ,the other is to reduce the limitation of it.The conclusion points out the deficient parts of this research.