President of international trade governing body speaks at Penn State Law

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Alberto Mazzoni, president of Unidroit, The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, recently spoke at Penn State Law on the development of the Unidroit principles and their relevance in international transactions at an event organized by Professor Marco Ventoruzzo as part of his course on International Commercial Transactions, together with the Society of Global Lawyers.

Unidroit is an independent intergovernmental organization based in Rome and comprised of over 60 countries. Its goal is the modernization and harmonization of private law, and in particular the development of a uniform body of law to facilitate international trade. Its international standards for contracts, included in a comprehensive set of “Principles,” build on several different legal traditions. While the Principles are not technically binding, they are often adopted by parties in international contracts, used by legislatures, a model for reform, and taken into account by judges and arbitrators to determine and interpret international law.

In his talk, Mazzoni emphasized how Unidroit Principles can represent a very desirable alternative to the domestic laws of one specific country. In Mazzoni’s opinion, the reasons have to do both with the quality of the Principles, and with the fact that they take into account different legal traditions and are therefore perceived as more “neutral” and less “imperialistic” in some countries. This is particularly relevant, Mazzoni observed, in an increasingly multicentric world. 

He illustrated the case with one anecdote: A Chinese and an Italian party were negotiating a contract in China, and they could not agree on the law that would govern the agreement. The Chinese party wanted Chinese law to apply, but the Italians did not. The impasse was solved when one of the lawyers suggested adopting the Unidroit Principles. While the Chinese party was not familiar with them, after a brief consultation with their American law firm, the Principles were swiftly accepted.

Answering students’ questions on the process through which the Principles are elaborated, Mazzoni underlined that “Unidroit is free of complications from politics and private interest groups, and has a different way of functioning.” Mazzoni said that Unidroit determines projects and appoints experts and scholars who will work on projects in a flexible way, without government pressure.

“The appointed scholars are experts in their field and can find solutions quickly, creating a more efficient process,” he said. 

Mazzoni, a leading scholar and practitioner of international business law, is a professor of commercial law at the Catholic University of Milan. He is the founding member of a boutique international law firm and has served as an arbitrator and a representative of the Italian government in negotiations concerning major international agreements.