Research Essay Question:
Australia’s legal system significantly differs from some of its biggest trading partners in Asia, such as, China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Australian Law of Contracts is based on English common law as developed by Australian courts and complemented by equitable doctrines, Commonwealth, State and Territory statutes and international law instruments. On the other hand, the contracts law of most of these countries has been codified based on Continental European legal system (Civil Law) and international instruments such as the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts.
It is often asserted that Australia may need to internationalise its contract law to simplify doing business with its major trading partners and reduce the cost of doing international business for Australia’s businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprises.
In view of these, answer the following questions:
1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of internationalising Australian contract law? Do you agree that there is a need for such internationalisation?