“The formation of international contracts is one of those issues which earns the conflict of laws its reputation for convolution. Common law courts remain fixated on two choices of the applicable law for formation issues—the putative proper law or the lex fori – despite those choices having long been criticised for perpetuating logical circularity and decisional disharmony respectively. The Singapore Court of Appeal’s decision in Solomon Lew v Kaikhushru Shiavax Nargolwala, however, breaks the common law’s problematic duality on formation issues. Delivering the judgment of the court, Lord (Jonathan) Mance, sitting as an International Judge (‘IJ’) on an appeal from the Singapore International Commercial Court, adopted a novel choice of law rule selecting the law most closely connected with parties’ pre-contractual negotiations. This note appraises Lord Mance IJ’s approach and argues that it has much to commend it, though it is in need of further refinement and may have far-reaching consequences for choice of law doctrine beyond contract issues …”
€
Marcus Teo, A Negotiation-Based Choice Of Law Rule For Contract Formation [2021] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (3).
First posted 2021-08-17 14:00:58
Leave a Reply