Session 3 : Unification and Harmonization of Laws

The System , Rule and Culture are different in every country.
It also bring the impact for International Trade and its Law to doing trade.

There are 3 way to solve about the different law in each country :

1. Every country in the world agreed not to apply domestic law.
2. Choice of Law
3. Unification and Harmonization

What is Unification and Harmonization?

Its a process to mix or find the best solution for different law between two country

What the different between unification and Harmonization?

Unification : uniformity which includes the removal and replacement of a system with the new legal system.

Harmonization : the quest for uniformity or the intersection of the principles that are fundamental of the various existing legal system and will be harmonized.

Harmonization aims to :

• create consistency of laws, regulations, standards and practices, so that the same rules will apply to businesses that operate in more than one member State, and so that the businesses of one State do not obtain an economic advantage over those in another as a result of different rules.
• reduced compliance and regulatory burdens for businesses operating nationally or trans-nationally.

Institutions Unification and Harmonization of Law:

• World Trade Organization [WTO]
• The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law [UNIDROIT]
• The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law [UNCITRAL]
• The International Chamber of Commerce [ICC]

 Who is WTO?

• There are a number of ways of looking at the World Trade Organization. It is an organization for trade opening. It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other.
  
  The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986–94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the ‘Doha Development Agenda’ launched in 2001.
  
  Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them lowered, the negotiations have helped to open markets for trade. But the WTO is not just about opening markets, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers — for example, to protect consumers or prevent the spread of disease.

What WTO do ?

1. Trade negotiations
   The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions.  They set procedures for settling disputes. These agreements are not static; they are renegotiated from time to time and new agreements can be added to the package.
    
2. Implementation and monitoring
   WTO agreements require governments to make their trade policies transparent by notifying the WTO about laws in force and measures adopted. Various WTO councils and committees seek to ensure that these requirements are being followed and that WTO agreements are being properly implemented.
3. Dispute settlement
   The WTO’s procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute Settlement Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for ensuring that trade flows smoothly.
4. Building trade capacity
   WTO agreements contain special provision for developing countries, including longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments, measures to increase their trading opportunities, and support to help them build their trade capacity, to handle disputes and to implement technical standards.
5. Outreach
   The WTO maintains regular dialogue with non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, other international organizations, the media and the general public on various aspects of the WTO with the aim of enhancing cooperation and increasing awareness of WTO activities.

UNIDROIT Information

• Set up in 1926 as an auxiliary organ of the League of Nations, the Institute was, following the demise of the League, re-established in 1940 on the basis of a multilateral agreement, the UNIDROIT Statute.

• The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) is an independent intergovernmental Organisation with its seat in the Villa Aldobrandini in Rome. Its purpose is to study needs and methods for Americans modernizing, harmonizing and co-ordinating private and in particular commercial law axle TransCanada States and groups of States and to formulate uniform law instruments, principles and rules to Achieve those objectives.

• UNIDROIT goal is to prepare the harmonization of private law rules or regulations and unification trade between different countries.

About UNCITRAL

• The core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. A legal body with universal membership specializing in commercial law reform worldwide for over 40 years. UNCITRAL's business is the modernization and Harmonization of rules on international business.

• Trade means faster growth, higher living standards, and new opportunities through commerce. In order to increase these opportunities worldwide, UNCITRAL is formulating modern, fair, and harmonized rules on commercial transactions. These include:

• Conventions, model laws and rules which are acceptable worldwide
• Legal and legislative guides and recommendations of great practical value
• Updated information on case law and enactments of uniform commercial law
• Technical assistance in law reform projects
• Regional and national seminars on uniform commercial law

About ICC

• The International Chamber of Commerce [ICC] was founded in 1919 and is based in Paris.
• The purpose: to serve world business by promoting trade, investment, open markets for goods and services, and promote the flow of capital.

ICC important  role:

• dispute resolution through arbitration in particular.
• a policy-making body of policies or rules that can facilitate international trade.
• for disseminating information and policies and legal rules internasiona trade among entrepreneurs in the world, and
• providing training and contract design techniques and other practical skills, such as in the international trade   

source :  
www.wto.org/‎
www.unidroit.org/‎
www.uncitral.org
www.iccwbo.org/‎