2024-03-12 15:00:26
Professor Frédéric Sourgens, James McCulloch Chair in Energy Law, Director, Tulane Energy Law Center, Tulane University School of Law, USA, is a new member of TransLex' Board of Trustees. Professor Sourgens is the author of "Good Faith in Transnational Law, A Pluralist Account", 2022, recognized as Book of the Year by the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA).
2023-05-23 13:11:40
On May 9, 2023, Professor Berger delivered a keynote speech on TransLex at the opening event of the Austrian Arbitration Academy Spring Program of Vienna University Faculty of Law and the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC).
2023-03-21 12:41:08
We have uploaded yet another document in the Johnny Veeder Archive, an arbitral award of October 17, 1832 concerning the estate of Simón Bolívar ("El Libertador"), the famous Venezuelan soldier and statesman. We are very grateful once again to Professor Juan Armesto, Madrid, for making us aware of the document and to Eloy Anzola, Miami, Florida, for providing us not only with a PDF of the handwritten original award, but also with a Spanish transcription and an English translation.
2023-01-25 15:35:04
We have included a new document in the Johnny Veeder Archive of Historic Arbitration Awards and ADR Materials: the official protocol of the Compromiso de Caspe of June 25, 1412. The document relates to a succession dispute concerning the vacant throne of the crown of Aragon after the death of King Martin I the Humane (El Humano) and constitutes a major step in the future uniting of Spain. We are very grateful to Professor Juan Armesto, Madrid, for making us aware of the document and to Professor José Ángel Sesma Munoz, Zaragoza, for allowing us to reproduce the Latin transcription and Spanish translation of the document.
2023-01-02 18:25:40
The TransLex-Team has uploaded yet another Principle with commentary and comparative law references which have been in the backend for quite some time. The Principle relates to the requirements for including standard terms in international business contracts. Further comparative law references will be uploaded during the next weeks.
2022-12-19 16:34:53
The TransLex-Team has uploaded a new Principle (No. 145) relating to the autonomy and strict compliance of letters of credit and guarantees together with a short commentary and a number of comparative law references. More references will follow in the next weeks. A very special thank you goes to Dr. Karl Marxen, LLM (Stellenbosch) LLD (Johannesburg) for providing the inspiration for the new Principle and for his most valuable comments on earlier drafts.
The Trans-Lex Team takes the opportunity and wishes everbody merry christmas and a happy new year. We are all very much looking forward to working with and for you in 2023!
2022-11-04 13:45:42
The TransLex Team has included in the Commentary to TransLex-Principle IV.5.1 a section on the interpretation of legal smart contracts expressed in code. In formulating this section, we sought inspiration from the English Law Commission Report, Smart legal contracts, Advice to Government, November 2021. Many thanks to Dr. Thomas von Plehwe, member of the bar of the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) for making us aware of the "reasonable coder test".
2021-12-17 09:49:26
Professor Dr. Santiago Dussan, LL.M. (Univ. of Cologne) from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, Colombia has examined the meaning of the good faith principle in TransLex from a law and economics perspective in the Revista de Estudos Constitucionais, Hermeneutica e Teoria do Direito 2021. Please click here for the full text.
2021-10-21 10:05:35
The text of the Principles of Latin American Contract Law (PLACL) is now available here. Many thanks to Rodrigo Momberg and Stefan Vogenauer for allowing us to reproduce their English translation of the PLACL.
2021-03-29 18:01:00
See here Professor Berger's LinkedIn Post concerning the blockade of the Suez Canal as a force majeure event and the connection between the Canal and the rebirth of the New Lex Mercatoria. You find Berthold Goldman's article here.
2020-11-25 19:16:17
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of Professor Philippe Kahn. Professor Kahn from the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France, was instrumental for my research on the New Lex Mercatoria. At a conference in Verona, Italy in November 1999, he made me aware of the "birth" of the New Lex Mercatoria in an article by Berthold Goldman on the legal nature of the Suez Canal Company in the French newspaper "Le Monde" of 4 October 1956. I had also been in touch with him through an exchange of letters many years ago. His report which I received with one of his letters entitled "Vers la Quȇte de La Lex Mercatoria: l'apport de L'École de Dijon 1957-1964" is reprinted in its original French version and in an English translation in the 2nd edition of my book "The Creeping Codification of the New Lex Mercatoria", 2010, 357 et seq (Kluwer). We have decided to name our online bibliography after Professor Philippe Kahn.
Please read below a short obituary from Dr. Sebastien Manciaux from the University of Burgundy, Dijon which was published on Young OGEMID today.
Klaus Peter Berger
„It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the passing away of Dr Philippe Kahn.
Dr Philippe Kahn was fighting for two weeks after being infected by covid 19 and he died yesterday evening, surrounded with love by his family.
Dr Philippe Kahn was the student of Berthold Goldman who supervised his Phd thesis at the beginning of the 60' on the international sale of goods.
Dr Philippe Kahn, together with Berthold Goldman and Phillipe Fouchard (another of Berthold Goldman's distinguished students with a Phd thesis - written during the same period - on International Commercial Arbitration) founded the "School of Dijon of International Law", developing their works on Lex Mercatoria notably, and they founded the CREDIMI (Centre de Recherche sur le droit des investissements et des marchés international) after the first ever colloquium, at least in France, on ICSID in 1968, at a time this institution was hardly known.
In the 70's he welcomed in Dijon at the CREDIMI and for a couple of months the late Thomas Wälde who was himself at the beginning of his brilliant career.
Dr Philippe Kahn has been the first of CREDIMI's directors until 2000, a renowned researcher (he received the silver medal of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS, at the end of the 90's) and an intimidating teacher for graduated students (I still keep in my memory his seminar on the CISG).
Dr Philippe Kahn ran as its director the Journal de droit international (or Clunet, certainly the most known French journal on International Law) from 1985 to 2002.
Dr Philippe Kahn has been a pioneer on International Investment Law, with a first paper in this field on "Problèmes juridiques de l'investissement dans les pays de l'ancienne Afrique française" published in Clunet in 1965, and many more until he retired.
He acted as an expert or counsel in some of the first ICSID cases (notably as an expert for the Egyptian government in Spp. v. Egypt) and provided me with unknown elements on this case and on Kloeckner v. Cameroun, that have been very useful for the student I was at the beginning of my Phd thesis on ICSID (Philippe Kahn was my Phd supervisor and a very good one. I will be grateful to him for ever for his frank and good advice that helped me so much).
Finally, behind a gruff look and his long beard which gave him the appearance of a patriarch, he was deeply human and remained attentive until the end to the development of our professional careers, and we had the joy of having him with us to celebrate in December 2018 - during a two days colloquium - the 50th anniversary of CREDIMI.
My sincere condolences go to his family, to his wife and especially to his daughter Anne-Emmanuelle, a friend and a colleague, Law Professor (specialized in copyright law) in Lyon and a very good music player.“
2020-10-26 11:44:43
As a result of research for the article "Force Majeure and Hardship in the Age of Corona", the two "flagship" principles force majeure and hardship were reformulated, restructured and harmonized, also to make it clearer that their prerequisites are largely identical and that they apply even if the relevant event already existed at the time of the conclusion of the contract.
2020-03-10 12:16:30
The TransLex-Team and I are deeply saddened by the passing of Johnny Veeder QC on March 8, 2020. The world of international arbitration has lost one of its greatest protagonists, a true legend and a man with a prodigious knowledge of arbitration, with a fascinating and warm personality and with a fine sense of humour.
I met Johnny for the first time in the mid 1990s at my first editorial conference of Arbitration International at Schloss Cecilienhof, the venue of the Potsdam Conference of July/August 1945. Johnny was the founder, long-time editor-in-chief and co-editor of that journal. I was profoundly impressed by his warm reception. Even though he had never seen me before, Johnny welcomed me as if I had been on the editorial board for many years. As a young professor, I invited Johnny to deliver the keynote address at one of the first annual meetings of the Center for Transnational Law in the castle of Münster University in 2001. He spoke about "Confidentiality in International Commercial Arbitration". The audience, mostly young German law students and lawyers, was hanging on his every word. In the same year, Johnny published his findings on the "Soviet Eggs" arbitration of the 1920 between a Soviet supplier and a German importer in the Liber Amicorum for Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel. At the "Festschrift" dinner, my wife noted that Johnny identified himself so much with the subject of his Festschrift-contribution that he even had little eggs on his tie.
Johnny's superb sense of humor was legendary. No one will forget Johnny's promotion of the academic career of the mysterious (because fictitious!) Mr. Ylts from doctor iuris to a permanent professorship. I have told generations of students about this remarkable academic career. "Professor Dr. A. F-J. Ylts" even reviewed one of my books in a 1998 issue of Arbitration International. When I saw the review, I called Johnny and asked him "Johnny, who on earth is Professor Ylts?" Johnny responded: "Oh, you don't know him? He is a very famous arbitration specialist!", only to burst out laughing some seconds later and to unveil the secret. At the peak of his academic career, Professor Dr. Ylts published (or rather wanted to publish) his article "The' Y2K Problem' and Arbitration" in the first issue of 2000 of Arbitration International. It consisted of only one page with the remark that "[it] is regretted that for technical reasons, publication of this article was rendered impossible". The asterisk footnote explained that Ylts had "begun his arbitration career as secretary to the arbitration tribunal in the Macao Sardine Case (1986), see Sir Michael Kerr, 3 Arb Int 79". Johnny's cover-up was so realistic that even the editors of the ASA Bulletin, in their review of this issue, thought it necessary to express "th[eir] hope that this is the last what we hear from this author about this topic". In December 2017, I invited Johnny to deliver the keynote address at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Center for Transnational Law in May 2018. I suggested to him "Arbitral Humor" as a topic and told him that I once received, at a DIS conference in Hamburg on April 21, 1999, from one of my co-panelists, the late Michael Kerr (Lord Justice as he then was), a copy of his famous article on the "The Macao Sardine Case" with a personal dedication "English arbitral humour - a forensic fable". Johnny was excited ("If I can do the date, I shall come!"), but in the end he was unable to resolve a conflict in his schedule.
From the very beginning, Johnny was also an ardent supporter of our TransLex-Project. Over the years, we received many encouragements from him ("You are doing great work, do keep it going!"). Johnny also laid the groundwork for the TransLex-Archive of Historic Arbitration Awards & Historic Arbitration Materials many years ago when he sent me, much to my surprise, a copy of the German original of the famous Lena Goldfields Award of September 1930 which he had discovered during his research in Russian archives in Moscow. The Award was the subject of Johnny's famous article "The Lena Goldfields Arbitration: The Historical Roots of Three Ideas" which was published in the October 1998 issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly. For us, the Lena Goldfields Award provided the stimulus to open a new section in TransLex, devoted to the collection of historic arbitration and ADR documents. Many more documents were to follow from Johnny over the years, such as the Scottish Arbitration Act of 1426, which Johnny found in a library at the University of Oxford, the handwritten original of the Parthenia Award of 1883, and the Dawson’s Fields Award of 1972 by the late Sir Michael Kerr. Our detailed account of the famous Alabama Claims Arbitration Award of 1872 is in part based on Johnny's profound interest in this case which culminated in his reflections in the inaugural Charles N. Brower Lecture on International Dispute Resolution "The Historical Keystone to International Arbitration: The Party-Appointed Arbitrator—From Miami to Geneva". Johnny also brought me in touch with Derek Roebuck who kindly added a number of documents to the Archive during the past years, including England's oldest surviving award of 118 AD.
When I informed Johnny in September 2016 of a new document which I had found during family vacations in Canada, the "Great Peace of Montreal", Johnny told me about his "father’s ancestors, then based in Schenectady (in the north of New York, formerly New Holland). They were early Dutch settlers who intermarried with the Mohawks and are still called by some: 'Mohawk-Veeders'". Johnny was also very enthusiastic about his "own find this summer, the arbitration award published in 1808 concerning General van Rensselaer (a relative by marriage of Alexander Hamilton). It was a multiparty dispute between five gentlefolk regarding their respective physical assaults in the streets of Albany (New York), decided by three arbitrators. The lawyer for the General was my ancestor (Van Vechten); and one assault took place at 'Veeder’s Corner'”.
In March 2019, Johnny Veeder and I spoke at the Russian Arbitration Day in Moscow. Johnny’s presentation on the history of Russian-German trade and arbitration in the 1920s was as fascinating and inspiring as always. It led to the inclusion of further documents, which had been the subject of his conference presentation, into the TransLex-Archive.
In light of Johnny's seminal contributions to the TransLex Archive, we have decided to rename it in honour of him. Johnny’s unparalleled legacy will continue to inspire me and my team in our future work, both with respect to TransLex and the law of transnational arbitration.
Klaus Peter Berger
2019-08-20 14:36:18
The fifth edition of the "TransLex-Principles with Commentary" (XXXII + 145 pages) has just been published. Copies will be provided to the participants of the Cologne Academies on Int'l. Business Mediation & Arbitration which start on August 25. Please contact us if you are interested in receiving a copy.
2019-07-08 11:15:14
We have uploaded new and rare historic documents related to the Alabama Claims Award of 1872, a historic milestone in inter-state arbitration. We have also added to our Archive the earliest reference to mediation in South Africa of April 1, 1837. Many thanks to the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) for providing us with these rare materials!
2019-04-15 18:35:01
Interested in the faces behind TransLex? Then take a look at our new team photo.
2019-04-08 11:33:39
Our ever-growing archive of rare historic documents on arbitration & ADR can now be easily accessed through the green "Archive" button.
2019-03-15 18:20:39
TransLex is mentioned in Appendix E of the "Guide to the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts in the Americas" which was approved by the Inter-American Juridical Committee at its 94th regular session on February 18-22, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2019-02-11 11:32:33
As part of our current campaign focussing on materials from hybrid ("mixed") jurisdictions, the TransLex-Team has just uploaded relevant sections of the Code Civil of Louisiana. More materials will follow soon.
2019-02-06 14:50:36
The introductory text on the historical and New Lex Mercatoria has been revised, especially with respect to the historical roots of the Lex Mercatoria concept in the area of both maritime and general commercial law.
2019-01-14 09:10:11
Our online archive of rare historic documents on arbitration and ADR now has the final settlement agreement of 27 April 2006 of the dispute between the Swiss Cantons of Zurich and Saint-Gall regarding cultural goods transferred from Saint-Gall to Zurich during the Battles of Villmergen of 1712.
2018-12-18 13:40:01
The Trans-Lex Team wishes everybody a happy holiday season and a healthy and successful year 2019!
2018-12-17 16:52:44
TransLex now contains three important OHADA documents: The Uniform act relating to general commercial law, the Uniform act on Arbitration and the preliminary draft by Professor Marcel Fontaine of the Uniform Act on Contract Law.
2018-09-11 10:53:57
Bin Cheng's seminal study of 1953 on "General Principles of Law as applied by International Courts and Tribunals" has been continued by Charles T. Kotuby and Luke A. Sobota in their excellent book on "General Principles of Law and International Due Process: Principles and Norms Applicable in Transnational Disputes", Oxford 2017.
2018-09-07 10:11:20
It was great to have 65 participants from 24 countries with us here at Cologne University for our annual Cologne Summer Academies on International Business Negotiation, Mediation and Commercial Arbitration. For more information on the Cologne Academies, please klick here.
2018-05-16 09:11:41
Our sincere congratulations to Orsolya Toth who has won the 2018 St. Petersburg International Legal Forum Private Law Prize for her magna opus "The Lex Mercatoria in Theory and Practice", 2017 (OUP)
2018-05-09 17:31:53
In Part IX. (Historic Awards/Materials) of the "Materials" Section you now find rare historic documents and explanations on the involvement of the Venetian nobleman and diplomat Alvise Contarini as one of the two mediators who assisted in the negotiations leading to the Westphalian Peace Treaties of 1648.
2018-04-18 16:14:02
If you are interested in the history of international arbitration and mediation, you will find two new Scottish documents from 1418 and 1609 in Part IX. (Historic Awards/Materials) of the "Materials" Section.
2017-12-15 11:37:32
The Trans-Lex Team wishes everybody a happy holiday season and a healthy and successful year 2018!
2017-09-25 15:16:54
Ulf Krause, long-time member of the TransLex team and co-head of our IT, has his last day in office today and will pursue a career in private practice. Many thanks for all the ideas, innovations and excellent work, and all the best for his future career!
2017-09-18 09:25:08
The English translation of the new provisions of the French Code Civil created by Ordonnance n° 2016-131 of 10 February 2016 is now available in our Materials-Section.
2017-03-06 20:57:07
A true milestone in the research on the New Lex Mercatoria has been published: Orsolya Toth, The Lex Mercatoria in Theory and Practice, 2017 (OUP).
2016-11-03 20:30:13
The fourth edition of the TransLex-Booklet, which contains the text of the TransLex-Principles with Commentaries, has just been published. Please do not hesitate to contact us for your free copy.
2016-08-24 16:57:26
The Section on historic arbitration Materials now contains an account of the arbitration provision in the "Great Peace of Montreal" of August 4, 1701, including a pdf of the original text of the Treaty, which was kindly provided to us by the "Archives nationales d'outre-mer" in Aix-en-Provence, France.
2016-07-07 16:01:58
Trans-Lex has a new, faster, and enhanced search engine. It offers a set of specific operators and filters that help you refining your search. For more information please refer to our "how to search"-page.
2016-05-19 12:09:23
Trans-Lex.org is a Supporting Organization of the V ICC Lex Mercatoria International Commercial Arbitration Moot (English Chapter) to be held in Minsk, Belarus from 25-28 November 2016. More information on the Moot may be accessed here.
2016-01-13 13:59:36
In the interest of enhanced user-friendliness, TransLex has been optimized to a responsive design. The website will adapt automatically to all screen sizes, including smartphones and tablets.
2015-07-07 13:12:57
The contributions of Yildirim, Ayoglu, Marrella, Connerty, Eskiyörük and Osman from the Conference Proceedings „International Commercial Arbitration and The New Lex Mercatoria” (Yildirim/Eskiyörük eds 2014) are now available with permission as full text pdfs in the TransLex Bibliography.
2015-04-09 13:11:06
A new feature was added to further increase the userfriendliness of the full-text or semi full-text comparative law references for the TransLex-Principles: when the cursor is moved over a “post-it” which indicates that the relevant passage of the document is used as a reference for one of the TransLex-Principles, a window opens and shows the full text of the relevant TransLex-Principle.
2015-03-18 09:22:24
To further enhance the userfriendliness of the TransLex Principles, the text of footnotes in the comparative law references for each Translex Principle can now be read by moving the cursor to the footnote number in the text.
2015-03-17 10:33:14
The third, fully revised edition of Professor Berger’s successful multimedia project on ADR in international business (negotiation, mediation, arbitration) has just been published. Click here for a video interview on the new edition.
2015-02-25 10:16:23
The TransLex Website and its „very exhaustive list of 130 general principles of the New Lex Mercatoria” is mentioned in the ICC’s recent study on “Developing Neutral Legal Standards for International Contracts”.
2015-01-08 15:48:19
A new Principle was included in the TransLex-Principles relating to the severability of contract provisions. That Principles reflects a standard practice in the drafting of international business contracts.
2014-12-16 13:39:11
The famous (and lengthy!) dissent by Sir Alexander Cockburn of September 14, 1872 in the Alabama Claims Arbitration is now available in the Materials Section. A very special thank you goes to TransLex Team-Member Jakob Fleischmann for his unprecedented one-year-effort to prepare this text for inclusion in TransLex!
2014-10-02 09:02:47
The idea of a new world order of economic relations based on, among other things, the organization of transnational communities and markets, the architecture and content of modern transnational contracts and transactions, as well as the transnationalization of international business law and arbitral case law was discussed at the Beaune Meeting of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in September 2014.
2014-06-02 09:57:52
Professor Felix Dasser has reviewed the concept of the Creeping Codification and its relationship with TransLex in Rabels Zeitschrift (RabelsZ) 2013 at page 449 et seq.2014-04-08 09:16:01
TransLex 3.0 was launched today. It’s more user-friendly than ever before and has a super fast search engine. TransLex 3.0 will be presented at the final rounds of the Vis Moot in Vienna!
2014-02-12 16:23:55
In February 2014 Professor Berger has presented the Beta-Version of Trans-Lex 3.0 in his lectures on "Transnational Commercial Law & International Arbitration" at Columbia Law School, New York.
2013-10-02 23:10:28
A new and long-awaited category of references has been opened for the TransLex-Principles. Under “Contract Clauses” you find a collection of contract provisions which reflect the fact that the relevant Principle is being used in international contract practice. So far, the new category has been opened for more than half of the Principles. The TransLex-Team will constantly expand this new category.
2012-12-06 13:30:50
On December 5, 2012, Professor Berger spoke about TransLex and the Creeping Codification of the New Lex Mercatoria at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
2012-11-13 11:00:22
New and rare historic documents on arbitration have been included in the “Materials” Section, such as Aristotle’s view on arbitration of 329 B.C., King Solomon’s Judgement from the Bible, the Scottish Arbitration Act of 1426, the arbitration clause in George Washington’s last will of 1799 and William Blackstone’s commentary on arbitration of 1809.
2012-06-04 15:28:21
Commentaries are now available for all 130 TransLex-Principles, just click on the "Commentary-Button" below the text of each Principle
2012-05-22 10:54:32
An improved mobile version of Trans-Lex is now available! http://m.trans-lex.org. [Update 2016-11-24: Due to our new design no special version for mobile users is needed. Therefore, we deleted this special domain.]
2012-01-19 16:36:00
Trans-Lex Commentaries are now available for more than 120 Trans-Lex Principles.
2011-11-02 09:33:53
In order to enhance the userfriendliness of TransLex, the TransLex-Team has added Commentaries to a number of Principles such as Hardship, Force Majeure and Bribery.
2011-06-28 13:37:38
When reading the CISG at Trans-Lex (http://www.trans-lex.org/500100) you can click on article-specific links which refer you to the corresponding website of the Pace Database.
2011-06-16 11:58:31
A contribution on TransLex by Professor Berger was published in the Liber Amicorum for Professor Eric Bergsten.
2011-05-16 08:56:14
TransLex' Principle on Force Majeure was cited by AOL-News in relation to the current Lybia crisis.
2010-12-08 16:26:36
Trans-Lex.org now indicates at the bottom of every document where this doc is cited by another Trans-Lex.org document.
2010-09-14 15:35:17
Trans-Lex now hosts a board for discussions around the topics "lex mercatoria" and "international arbitration". https://www.trans-lex.org/forum.php
2010-05-03 10:27:13
Prof. Berger gave an interview on Transnational Law and Trans-Lex.org to PACE University.
2010-02-23 09:44:18
Listen here to Professor Berger's Interview on Cologne Campus Radio. [German]
2010-01-25 10:38:50
Creeping Codification, 2nd ed. out now: Click here to order.
2010-01-07 11:07:14
TransLex is the runner up in OGEMID's of the Year Awards 2009 in the category "IDR-Related Project".
2009-10-20 15:00:58
A new Section with research papers on transnational law under "VII." is opened in the TransLex-Materials.2009-10-20 11:44:22
Now every document has a facebook link at the bottom which allows you to share TransLex documents in Facebook.
2009-10-19 14:19:57
As from now you can follow TransLex via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Trans_Lex
2009-06-03 15:03:48
A new Section with Historic Materials was opened under "VI" in the TransLex-Materials.
2009-04-08 15:22:34
TransLex was presented at the final rounds of the Willem C. Vis Moot Court in Vienna. Many thanks for all the encouragement!
2009-04-01 15:33:13
www.Trans-Lex.org is online!