Law Commons^™

Through The Looking Glass: Understanding Social Science Norms For International Investment Law, Susan Franck, Calvin Garbin, Jenna Perkins

Susan D. Franck

When social science methods are being employed in a new context — such as the assessment of international investment law — there is value in exploring the underlying assumptions and normative baselines of the enterprise. This article and response address critiques about the methodology of an article in the Harvard International Law Journal by: (1) describing the value of social science in international investment law; (2) replicating the research using new methodologies to conduct more than 20 new tests that were still unable to ascertain the existence of a reliable relationship between development status and outcomes on the basis of …

The Law Merchant-Redux, Art Gemmell Dr.

art gemmell

The Lex Mercatoria- Redux Arthur J. Gemmell and Autumn Talbott* ABSTRACT

The lex mercatoria developed as merchant-made, private law. Unlike other bodies of law, the lex mercatoria was not born of statutory or “natural” law but from practical, day-to-day commercial usage. In fact, medieval commercial activities propagated the “most favorable trading practices and customs of the various foreign markets within which [merchants] did business.”

What evolved in the Middle Ages out of necessity stands today as a sometimes controversial testimony to the power of self-regulation through a specialized and practical body of law: the lex mercatoria that has for centuries …