A Treatise on Commercial Arbitration and Awards

The Spontaneous Evolution of Commercial Law

“…Numerous middlemen were often required to bring about an exchange, including buyer, seller and shipping agents. All of this, in the face of localized, often contradictory laws and business practices, produced hostility towards foreign commercial customs and led to mercantile confrontations [23,11]. There was a clear need for Law as a "language of interaction.…”

“…Those previously localized customs which were discovered to be common to many localities became part of the international Law Merchant. Furthermore, where conflicts arose, those practices which proved to be the most efficient at facilitating commercial interaction supplanted those which were less efficient [23,11]. As international trade developed, the benefits from uniform rules and uniform application of those rules superseded the benefits of discriminatory rules and rulings that might favor a few local individuals.…”

“…Such enactments were not new law. Established custom still provided the rules of commerce, so even where a government legislated, the rules that had already been established by merchants were simply confirmed or slightly modified [16,11].…”