Trade Usages and Implied Terms in the Age of Arbitration

If a dispute between commercial parties reaches the stage of arbitration, the cause is usually ambiguous contract terms. The arbitrator often resolves the dispute by applying trade usages, either to interpret the ambiguous terms or to determine what the given contract's terms really are. This recourse to trade usages does not create many problems on the domestic level. However, international arbitrations are far more complex and confusing.

Trade Usages and Implied Terms in the Age of Arbitration provides a clear explanation of how usages, and more generally the implicit or implied content of international commercial contracts, are approached by some of the most influential legal systems in the world. Building on these approaches and taking account of arbitral practice, this book explores possible conceptual frameworks to help shape the emerging transnational law of trade usage. Part I covers the treatment and conceptual grounding of usages and implied terms in the positive law of influential jurisdictions. Part II defines the approach to usages and implied terms adopted in the design and implementation of important uniform law instruments dealing with international business contracts, as well as in the practice of international commercial arbitration. Part III concludes the book with an outline of what the conceptual grounding of trade usages could be in the transnational law of commercial contracts.

Fabien Gelinas is Professor of Law at McGill University, where he previously served as Associate Dean of Law and Director of the Institute of Comparative Law. He was formerly General Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and is now chair of the Canadian Arbitration Committee. He teaches international arbitration and contract law in both the civil law and the common law tradition and publishes widely on these subjects. A former law clerk to Justice Charles Doherty Gonthier of Canada's Supreme Court, he holds degrees from the University of Montreal and the Paris School of diplomatic and strategic studies, and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. He acts regularly as arbitrator in international commercial matters.