Abstract

In the field of international commercial contracts, the move towards legal harmonization is seen mainly as a function of two vectorial forces: conventional uniform law and the lex mercatoria. In both cases, the decision-maker is frequently confronted by the silence of the law. By analysing the ways in which a decision-maker may resort to the general principles of law and trade usages to make the law speak, the author sets out the broad outlines of an attempt to help situate the sources of transnational law between law and contract on one hand, and between formal law and informal law on the other.