Stefan Vogenauer (ed), Commentary on the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC)
| Pages | 249-251 |
| Published date | 01 May 2016 |
| Date | 01 May 2016 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2016.0354 |
| Author |
I remember the delight I felt when, as a member of the Scottish Law Commission, I received the first edition of the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). This was just what a law reformer needed – a set of model rules on major aspects of contract law, drafted by respected experts, the fruit of much research, thought and debate, policy-driven rather than tradition-driven. It built on the successful UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) but went well beyond it. That was in 1994. I have been an admirer of the PICC ever since. There was an enlarged new edition in 2004 and another in 2010.
One feature of the PICC, which could be seen as a strength or a weakness, is the brevity of the official comments on each article. It is a strength because it keeps the book in a readable, easily-used form; it is a weakness because there is much more which could be said about many of the choices made. Another feature, which could also be seen as a strength or a weakness, is that there are no systematic references to national laws. This is a strength because it promotes the international nature of the text, avoids giving prominence to a few favoured systems, and avoids the inevitable problem of obsolescence; it is a weakness because there can be great interest in such references and comparisons.
The outstanding merit of this outstanding book is that it provides a much fuller commentary on the PICC, often with references to the
There is much new material in this second edition. Some of it was required by the 2010 edition of the PICC, which appeared after the first edition of the Commentary and contains new rules on illegality, conditions, plurality of debtors and creditors, and restitution, but there has also been a lot of rewriting. This is particularly noticeable in the parts formerly written by Jan Kleinheisterkamp, an editor and major contributor to the...
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