This book explores the source and extent of the right of parties to an international contract to make appropriate arrangements for the determination of their legal relationship, primarily by selecting the applicable law, but also by selecting the judicial or arbitral forum. The book focuses on the legal systems of the United States, the Commonwealth jurisdictions and the civil law countries of western and central Europe, taking as a starting point the provisions of the several Hague Conventions on the Choice of Law in Sales and other contracts, the Rome Convention of 1980 on the Law Applicable to International Contracts and the Mexico Convention of 1994 on the same topic, as well as modern legislation on conflicts of law. Nygh's aim is to discern a general consensus, where present, and to argue for a further development and extension of the principles of autonomy unhampered by historical notions of territoriality and sovereignty, which hitherto have sought to restrain it, with only such limitations as can be justified for the protection of weaker parties or genuine state interests. This fascinating analysis, written from the author's unique perspective, will be welcomed by practitioners and scholars alike. This book is part of the Oxford Monographs in Private International Law series, the aim of which is to publish work of high quality and originality in a number of important areas of private international law. The series is intended for both scholarly and practitioner readers.

The scope and application of the rules of civil jurisdiction is of immense practical importance in the conduct of transnational tort cases. Frequently such rules can dictate whether the plaintiff has an effective remedy or not and the shape of the ensuing litigation. The incidence of transborder harms is on the increase: transboundary pollution (for example, fall-out from Chernobyl, the determination of proper forum for litigation of the Bhopal); the rise in complex international fraud (Guiness, Ferranti, BCCI); the increase in scope for product liability and intellectual property litigation in international commerce; and transnational personal injury cases arising from the increased flow of persons across national borders. These practical problems give rise to difficult legal issues, which existing domestic rules of jurisdiction may be ill-equipped to resolve. In this collection of original articles, a leading team of contributors assess existing legal provisions and examine the prospects for reform. The book is intended for all private international lawyers, and specialists in international commercial litigation, torts lawyers and lawyers interested in international environmental

International commercial arbitration raises issues other than the choice of the law applicable to the principal contract. Autonomy may have a wider meaning, extending beyond the choice of applicable law to the choice of arbitration itself, and of the place or places where it is to be conducted. Nor is it altogether clear what the forum is, if any. This paper raises the fundamental question of what gives the arbitrator his or her competence; the will of the parties or the law of the seat of arbitration which the parties may, or may not, have chosen. An answer has also been suggested to the questions of which choice of law rules, if any, should be applied by the arbitrators, to what extent arbitrators will apply mandatory rules (regles d'application immediate), as well as which law governs the procedural aspects and whether it has to be the procedural law of a national system. The new English Arbitration Act 1996 has also been taken into account.