1994 · Uniform laws and model principles

UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts

International

A set of model rules on contracts, drafted by scholars from many countries, which parties may choose to govern their contract and judges and legislators may use as a guide.

Why it matters

They are not a law, but several countries used them when writing new contract law, including China and the Baltic states.

Built on

1980 (in force 1988)

UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)

International

built on the sales convention and extended it to contracts in general

Went on to shape

1999

Contract Law of the People's Republic of China

China

drew on the principles' rules, in the draft stage

2016

French contract-law reform

France

its drafters also looked at the UNIDROIT and European principles of contract law

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 3 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.