In this paper we criticize the so-called 'more economic approach' to European competition law for its disregard of the importance of a functional system of private law. The more economic approach presumes that vertical integration is an economically efficient governance-mechanism. This...

Markets are not a natural phenomenon but depend on a complex set of institutions. Commercial law enables and facilitates at-arm's-length market exchange. Competition law regulates freedom of contract in order to protect it from self-abolition. On the domestic level, these core pillars of the...

International business disputes rarely go to court, but sometimes they do.By virtue of the internationally accepted principle of party autonomy, business partners involved in cross-border transactions are entitled to select their forum of choice for any dispute which may arise from their...

Wirtschaftlicher Austausch kann sich nur entwickeln, wenn er hinreichend gegen opportunistisches Verhalten abgesichert ist. In der globalisierten Wirtschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts werden grenzüberschreitende Geschäfte meist nicht durch staatliche Gerichte, sondern durch "Private Ordering" und...

Dem deutlichen Zuwachs des weltweiten Handelsvolumens in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten müsste auch eine Zunahme von Handelsstreitigkeiten in der Justiz gegenüberstehen. Tatsächlich aber nehmen die Fallzahlen in Handelssachen vor staatlichen Gerichten stetig ab. Zur Erklärung dieses Umstands...

Access to Court is a gobal principle, though the consequences of this principle are interpreted differently in the U.S. and Europe. Neither International Commercial Arbitration nor International Litigation can offer an effective access to court for cross-border commercial contracts. Whereas...

Lex mercatoria or Law Merchant (‘LM') is said to be the self-made law of international commerce. According to its proponents, LM is an autonomous legal order that not only supplements state commercial law, but works as a substitute for it. The ‘ancient' LM, which accompanied the commercial...

This paper explores the theory of transnational law. It is proposed that transnational civil regimes transcend the public-private distinction both in the substantive (private vs public law) and the procedural (public vs private regulators) dimensions. A toolbox of twelve generic governance...