On The Harmonizing Instruments In International Trade Law: From CISG To PICC

Globalization is the theme of our age.Legal globalization has therefore become a distinct trend of the evolution of modern law since economic globalization calls for corresponding legal environment.Deeply rooted in the lex mercatoria of the middle ages,the law of international trade is earmarked with the international nature.During the second half of the 20^th century,sponsored by those formulating agencies such as UNCITRAL,UNIDROIT and ICC,great progress has been seen in the harmonization movement in the area of trade law.With the lapse of time,the weakness of the existing CISG,which was adopted more than 20 years ago,has become more evident both in its way of harmonization and its contents.PICC,an instrument of soft law which modeled the restatement of contract law in the U.S.,suits the requirement of the economic development as it successfully achieves the combination of the traditionally conflicting values of legal certainty and flexibility.The present study,as guided by the basic theory of comparative laws,centered on the fundamental issue of the means of harmonization in the area of trade law in the context of economic globalization,probes into the advantages of the new harmonizing instrument of PICC as compared with the traditional harmonizing means of international convention,i.e.,CISG,with a view to providing some enlightment on the legislation work in China.The thesis is organized as follows:The preamble introduces the theme and scope of the subject with brief comments on the literature available.Chapterâ… "Harmonization of the Trade Law" provides the basic theory of the harmonization of trade law.It describes the concept and necessity of the harmonization movement in the area of trade law,reflects its historical footsteps and examines its foundation,obstacles and the progressiveness.Chapterâ…¡"Means of Harmonization of the Trade Law" provides the concept of means of harmonization of trade law,discusses the various means of harmonization in the area of trade law and expounds the existing CISG which takes the traditional harmonizing form of international convention with special attention paid to its weakness.Chapterâ…¢"PICC-New Means of Harmonization in Trade Law" introduces the background to PICC as well as the draft process thereof and provides a detailed analysis of its structure,contents and functions.Chapterâ…£"PICC and Regional Harmonization of Trade Law" provides a theoretical analysis of the relationship between global and regional harmonization of law,it also describes the formulation and significance of the regional harmonizing instrument PECL and probes into the similarities,differences and application relationship between PICC and PECL.Chapterâ…¤"The Advantages of the New Harmonizing Instrument PICC" defines the nature of PICC as an international form of restatement of law,provides a detailed analysis of the advantages of the this new means of harmonization by comparison with the traditional harmonizing instrument of CISG and tries to provide some thoughts on the legislation work in China.The conclusion embodies the key points made in the present study.