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The ever-increasing commercial activities across borders and continental lines has led to the frequent drafting of international commercial contracts by contracting parties or their lawyers. When parties conclude an international contract, the question which often arises is with regard to the proper law of the contract. This is also the case when standard forms are used in contracting. Where more than one standard form is presented by the contracting parties (one from either party), the issue of battle of forms with respect to the proper law may arise. This study focuses on providing an appropriate solution to the battle of form situation with respect to the choice of law clauses in standard forms contracts. It examines the solutions by the Hague Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts (Hague Principles) and that of India and, thereafter, proposes that India adopts the solution in the Hague Principles (as it better represents the position of the contracting parties).

Cross-border litigation is complex. Generally, judgments made by the courts of one sovereign state are, by themselves, not enforceable in the courts of another sovereign state. Collecting monetary damages or other remedies awarded by a court in an international dispute can be even more difficult because, normally, decisions of a state’s courts have no force outside the territorial boundaries of that state. Efforts to create an internationally accepted convention for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments have not had much success, and regional and bilateral agreements have limited reach. This study compares the legal rules in Ghana and the European Union (Brussels I Recast) on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The study discusses the rules within the two jurisdictions, pointing out any deficiencies that may be identified in the two legal regimes. The aim is to provide recommendations that may be useful in developing the rules under consideration. The recommendations are aimed at adopting appropriate legal rules on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments that would likely aid in the promotion of international sales contracts among private persons and other commercial entities located in different countries.

In private international law of contract, the law regulating the rights and obligations of contracting parties may (whether objectively determined or chosen by the parties), in some instances, be limited by either public policy considerations or other relevant mandatory rules. In this regard, the public policy and the overriding mandatory rules of three places – that of the forum state, the applicable law (if different from the lex fori) and the law of the place of performance (or a third state with relevant connection to the contract) – have been considered by both jurists and scholars as being important. However, this article is limited to matters concerning choice of law rules on overriding mandatory provisions (but not public policy considerations). This article assesses the various private international law rules utilised by the South African courts in ascertaining which overriding mandatory provisions must apply to international contracts for the sale of goods. The aim is to adopt a general private international law of contract rule that effectively addresses the difficulty in determining the state, whose overriding mandatory provisions may legitimately claim application over certain relevant issues in international sales contracts. To this end, the article considers the general application of the overriding mandatory rules of the forum and that of the applicable law state (lex causae) to determine if these laws may legitimately by applied to contracts as it is practiced by some courts. Thereafter, the article considers the application of the overriding mandatory rules of the place of performance (locus solutionis) or other relevant third states and demonstrate that it is the overriding mandatory provisions of “a relevant state” that may legitimately derogate the application of certain provisions of the proper law of an international contract.

Issues on choice of law are sometimes very complex, and the resulting outcome may be determinative of most litigations. This is especially true where the litigation concerns cross-border transactions involving states with diverse laws and di erent legal traditions. Thus, it is important for parties to be able to accurately predict the applicable law of their international sales contract in advance to enable them to plan the activities relating to their contracts with certainty. The existence of uncertainty with regard to the applicable law in most legal systems especially at common law makes it difficult for contracting parties to plan or resolve disputes that may arise from their commercial contracts, either by themselves or by the court. This situation is an unpleasant one which presents an undesirable state of affairs to the business world. At common law, although it is true that the legal certainty required with respect to the applicable law of international commercial contracts can be achieved by a choice of law clause, it should be noted that most of such contracts do not contain this clause. This article attempts to contribute to existing literature on choice of law for contract in South Africa and also provide solutions, based on the underlying principles of private international law of contract, that effectively address the uncertainty in this area of law. To achieve its task, the article examines the various connecting factors considered by the South African courts in determining the applicable law (also, the proper law or governing law) of international contracts in situations where the parties do not insert a choice of law clause in their international contracts for sale of goods. The factors considered in this regard include the place of conclusion of contract, domicile, habitual residence and place of performance. These factors, in most situations, serve as the primary connecting factors considered by the courts in arriving at an answer with regard to the objective proper law/applicable law of an international sale contract (and other international commercial contracts) in South Africa. Further, the article examines why it is important for South African courts, and common law courts in general, to even go through the exercise of determining the applicable law in matters of international commercial disputes and not simply rely on the lex fori in dealing with such litigations (since, a lex fori approach might be much easier).

The human rights argument for the abolishment of the death penalty has been firmly established in modern times in both practical terms and in the academic circles. Today, most countries have abolished the death penalty for various reasons, all of which are based on human rights. This paper is a contribution to the numerous studies calling for the abolition of the death penalty in various countries. Aside from discussing relevant international instruments (and other national instruments and judicial decisions) relevant to abolishing the death penalty, it focuses on issues concerning the death penalty in Ghana. The primary aim of this paper is to make a recommendation to both the executive and legislative arms of the Ghana government to abolish the death penalty.