THE CURRENTNESS OF THE UNIDROIT PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS - EFFECTS OF BOTTOM-UP METHOD OF LAW HARMONIZATION.

The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts have recently been published in their fourth edition, prompting the analysis of the origin of such a great success of this multifunctional instrument. Namely, this soft law regulation, although formally non-binding has significant de facto legal effects: it is a model law for many legal systems, it can be used as the law governing contracts, in processes before courts and arbitration tribunals, and as a means of interpretation and supplementation of uniform instruments. In this paper, the role of the so-called bottom-up approach was observed as an academic, non-sanctioned method of law harmonization that was applied in the making and developing of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. This regulation is an obvious example of advantages that can be achieved by the creative normative process of the most esteemed experts not limited by the political imperative of the states they hail from. Their results achieve success because of the quality of their solutions and by doing so they promote alternative methods of harmonization of international commercial law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]