A small but influential number of States or their subdivisions have put substantial resources into establishing courts that operate outside of or have a special status within their traditional judicial systems. In instances, the judges of these courts are not citizens of the seats of the respective courts. The courts typically apply foreign law and do so in English. Why the removal of certain cases from local courts and local law or the establishment of new specialized courts within existing systems? An argument is that the new courts enhance the rule of law, both in the location of the court as well as regionally and even internationally. This chapter examines court rules and practices to assess the influence of international commercial courts on the rule of law.

A free political community (res publica) was supposed to be built on a coherent understanding of the nature of community and its goals, the sources of justice and law as well as on the paradigm of liberty. This second chapter provides conceptual analysis of the major republican texts that were published in Poland–Lithuania in the sixteenth century, looking particularly at the very concept of a res publica and its foundations: justice, the rule of law and the paradigm of liberty. In these works, the normative foundations of the res publica and its independence were seen as the most fundamental safeguards of individual freedom. At the same time, corruption was regarded as inimical to liberty, as the most pernicious obstacle to preserving the freedom and independence of the commonwealth. In the political discourse that developed, a number of authors shared the same vision of the best political order, which was deeply influenced by classical and contemporary republican ideas. But they disagreed as to the role of the lower strata of society and their status.