One More Time With Feeling

This paper responds to the three most common objections to depictions of international trade as a formally ungoverned arena of economic significance: 1. International trade was small until  quite recently, suggesting the unimportance of the medieval Law Merchant. 2. Private arbitration always takes place in the “shadow of the state.” Historically, international  commercial contracts were enforced by various state courts, and today private arbitral decisions are formally enforced by national governments. 3. The lex mercatoria is a “myth.”  The Law Merchant plays a non-existent, if not, minimal role in modern international commercial dispute resolution. The evidence contradicts each of these claims.

Read the article at Peter Leeson's website.