Indeed, the medieval
Law Merchant powerfully illustrates the self generative capacity of commercial customary norms.
The
law merchant, or lex mercatoria, was a system of mercantile
encompass the law of state-state relations, the
law merchant, and the
See, e.g., Emily Kadens, The Myth of the Customary
Law Merchant, 90 TEX.
(7.) WYNDAM ANSTIS BEWES, THE ROMANCE OF THE
LAW MERCHANT: BEING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL LAW WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COMMERCE AND FAIRS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 1-2 (Fred B.
It also provides a blueprint for the future, as the modern lex mercatoria is presented in the genealogical narratives as either the reincarnation (rebirth) of the ancient
law merchant or as the result of its evolution.
(16) It could also be said that the old
law merchant concerning negotiable instruments was mandatory international custom before it became caught up in the 19th century national codifications, or statutory law in England.
This, it is alleged, was only possible because at that time, traders developed a
law merchant similar to the modern lex mercatoria, whose forerunner it was.
I mention the
law merchant only to prove that law does not require the backing of coercion supplied by government Once this point a proven, the intellectual keystone supporting Peritz's book disappears.
Rogers has a simple objective: to correct the persistent notion that English commercial law finds its origins "in the struggle between the
law merchant and the common law" (p.
Following private international law,(12) I refer to all such norms of business communities as the "new
law merchant."(13) The new
law merchant arises outside of the state's apparatus for making law.