Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T15:55:29.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Importance of Swiss Law in International Arbitration

from Part I - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Christoph Müller
Christoph Müller
Affiliation:
Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores why Swiss law is very frequently chosen as the law applicable to international commercial contracts. This chapter reviews the statistics of the ICC and the Swiss Arbitration Centre as well as surveys carried out of international commercial actors confirming that Swiss law is one of the most popular laws chosen to govern the parties’ contract. This chapter then goes on to analyse the reasons cited for the popularity of Swiss law as the law governing the parties’ contract, namely the parties’ freedom to agree on the rights and obligations in their contractual relationship, the perceived neutrality of Swiss contract law, the suitability of Swiss law to cross-cultural relationships, its commonalities with laws of several Civil law jurisdictions, namely French and German law, the fact that the Swiss Code of Obligations is concise and easily accessible and the attractiveness of Switzerland as a seat of arbitration.

Keywords

Swiss lawcontract lawCode of Obligationsinternational commercial contractsinternational commercial arbitration
Type
Chapter
Information
Swiss Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration
A Commentary
 , pp. 3 - 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Bucher, Eugen, ‘Law of Contracts’, in Dessemontet and Ansay (eds), Introduction to Swiss law, 3rd edn (The Hague/Boston: Kluwer Law International, 2004), p. 105.Google Scholar
Cuniberti, Gilles, ‘The International Market for Contracts: The Most Attractive Contract Laws’, (2014) 34 Nw. J. Int’l L. and Bus. 455.Google Scholar
Haberbeck, Philipp H., ‘Reasons for the attractiveness of Swiss contract law to international commercial actors’, Inside Law, 22 December 2017, available at https://insidelaw.ch/reasons-for-the-attractiveness-of-swiss-contract-law-to-international-commercial-actors/ (accessed 15 January 2023).Google Scholar
Scherer, Matthias and Schneider, Michael, ‘An Analysis of International Construction Contracts: Switzerland’, in Knutson, (ed.), FIDIC – An Analysis of International Construction Contracts (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2005), p. 313 et seq.Google Scholar
Vogenauer, Stefan, ‘Civil Justice Systems in Europe: Implications for Choice of Forum and Choice of Contract Law – A Business Survey – Final Results’ (2008) available at fondation-droitcontinental.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/oxford_civil_justice_survey_-_summary_of_results_final.pdf (accessed 15 January 2023).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×