Lex Mercatoria

Lex Mercatoria

  • Submitted By: danahan
  • Date Submitted: 03/25/2009 9:05 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 934
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 302

(Redirected from Law Merchant) Jump to: navigation, search {text:bookmark-start} {text:bookmark-end} History It is believed that goods and services flowed freely during the medieval Law Merchant, thus generating more trade and wealth. This is also the purpose of the single market, as we know it today. It is, however, debatable whether the law was uniform in nature, was spontaneous as a method of dispute resolution, or applied equally to everyone who subordinated to it. The Law Merchant was also a means for local communities to protect their own markets. By holding merchants to local rules the Law Merchant required a distinct local character. It was an issue then, as now, to what extent nation states are justified in regulating trade to protect local interest (such as tax revenue or custom barriers). Nation states were non-existing at the early stages of the Law Merchant, but local kings or authorities saw to the task just as well. The effort to create a single market did not fail, but lack of a higher authority to unify rules and customs certainly gave room for local variations within the market. {text:bookmark-start} {text:bookmark-end} Administration Judges were chosen according to their commercial background and practical knowledge. Their reputation rested upon their perceived expertise in merchant trade and their fair-mindedness. Gradually, a professional judiciary developed through the merchant judges. Their skills and reputation would however still rely upon practical knowledge of merchant practice. These characteristics serve as important measures in the appointment of international commercial arbitrators today. The law merchant owed its origin to the fact that the civil law was not sufficiently responsive to the growing demands of commerce, as well as to the fact that trade in premedieval times was practically in the hands of those who might be termed cosmopolitan merchants, who wanted a prompt and effective jurisdiction. It was administered for the...

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