Thirty years of the Unidroit principles of international commercial contracts: lessons learned and future prospects

Abstract International business transactions are subject to multiple laws in different jurisdictions. The need to access foreign laws in different languages leads to increased transaction costs and delays. Despite extensive unification efforts, uniformity remains an arduous task. The Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) are non-binding contract law principles designed to provide a neutral law for international transactions. Their 30th anniversary marked an important milestone and presents an opportunity to assess their use in practice, their influence, and their role in new frontiers of contract law. To this end, this article analyses the application of the PICC in contract drafting and dispute settlement. Furthermore, it examines the interaction of the PICC with domestic laws and international law instruments and scrutinizes some areas of tension between the PICC and English law. Finally, this article explores the possible role of the PICC in new frontiers of contract law, such as in the evolving landscape of Belt and Road Initiative agreements and emerging technology as well as their future in the ongoing unification efforts in private law and recommendations for lawmakers. It concludes that the PICC, easily accessible and flexible, contribute greatly to the availability of information on the contents of rules, while the freedom to choose the PICC promotes party autonomy and legal innovation.