Unidroit, Eppur Si Muove: The Age of Uniform Law
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2017.0446 |
| Author | |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| Pages | 458-461 |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
This massive, two-volume collection of essays in honour of Michael Joachim Bonell, the leading light behind the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts, is a monument to the affection and regard in which he is held and a treasure trove of chapters by leading legal scholars from all over the world. Anybody who has any interest in the transnational aspects of private law, in comparative private law, in European private law or in the development of uniform law (whether by conventions or by soft law instruments) will find a truly remarkable amount of fascinating material in it, mainly in English but also in Italian, French, Spanish and German.
I first came across Joachim Bonell when he gave a lecture on the first edition of the Unidroit Principles at Edinburgh University shortly after their publication. That was when I became aware of his trademark expression “And why not?” Later I had the privilege of seeing him in action at meetings of the Lando Commission on European Contract Law and the Study Group on a European Civil Code. He was universally liked and admired: his contributions were always valuable and all the more effective for being delivered with charm and humour. He was in his element in those meetings. As the Preface to this book observes (vii) “He is a constructive comparative lawyer, rather than a mere specialist and defender of his excellence in the field. He is resolute in promoting ‘better rules’, rather than being satisfied with a survey and classification …”
The first part of the book, after a short section on personal reminiscences, is on legal theory. Here I particularly liked the essay on “Lessons from a Traffic Light: a Juridical Scherzo” by Vincenzo Zeno Zencovich (91–106). We take it for granted, wherever we are, that red means stop and green means go but how many of us know that this, along with the use of amber lights, is regulated with some subtlety by article twenty-three of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, adopted in 1968 under the auspices of the United Nations? This is an example of uniform law which affects billions of people around the world. The author subjects it to an amusing, but illuminating, analysis from various points of view, including law and economics, law and psychology, sociology of law, legal philosophy and comparative law. There is even a passing reference to EU Directive 2015/413 on facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences – an...
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