Uniformity between Latin America and the United States in the Rules of Private International Law Relating to Commercial Contracts

Abstract

The rapid development in modern times of international trade has brought in its course a deeper appreciation of dissimilarities in the law. Because these differences give rise to disputes and misunderstandings, serious efforts, both individual and collective, have been made to secure greater uniformity not only in the rules of private international law but in the various branches of commercial law itself. The League of Nations has given this movement for unification its strong support and as a result many countries of the world have today a uniform law for the enforcement of arbitration agreements and foreign arbitral awards, a uniform law of bills and notes, a uniform law of checks, and a uniform law of conflicts relating to bills, notes and checks. In the movement for the unification of the rules of private international law Latin America has taken a preeminent place. The Convention of Montevideo of 1889 on Civil and Commercial Law, which was ratified by Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, constituted the first successful attempt in this direction. The work so auspiciously begun was resumed in more recent times by the Pan-American conferences and was carried to a most notable conclusion at the Pan-American Conference at Havana in 1928 by the adoption of the Bustamante Code, which is now in force in most of the Latin-American countries.