Internationality and commerciality in the Uncitral Model Law: A functional and integrative analysis

Abstract

This article investigates the nature of internationality and commerciality as these concepts appear in the Uncitral Model Law, from a functional point of view and in contrast with the connotations that the same terms of art have in domestic realms. Rather than a merely theoretical account, it crosses over elements of the civil and common law systems. Ultimately, it combines the descriptive and systematic rigor of the civil law legacy with the factuality and inductiveness of the common law heritage. In order to do that, it (a) decomposes the concerned concepts, (b) highlights the uniqueness of their contours within the peculiar domain of international commercial arbitration, (c) differentiates them from homonymous domestic categories, and (d) suggests the reconstruction of their meaning in light of a functional, integrated, and de facto perspective. In sum, it contends that both categories own its ratio essendi, content, and functionality to the autonomous, unique and aboriginal role that International Law exerts – through the international commercial arbitration dynamics – in the interest of the maximum efficiency of the international trade.