Contractual Knowledge: One Hundred Years of Legal Experimentation in Global Markets by Mallard, Gregoire

ISBN: 9781107130913

Cambridge University Press | 26 May 2016

Hardback | 432 pages 

Contractual Knowledge: One Hundred Years of Legal Experimentation in Global Markets, edited by Gregoire Mallard and Jerome Sgard, extends the scholarship of law and globalization in two important directions. First, it provides a unique genealogy of global economic governance by explaining the transition from English law to one where global exchanges are primarily governed by international, multilateral, and finally, transnational legal orders. Second, rather than focusing on macro-political organizations, like the League of Nations or the International Monetary Fund, the book examines elements of contracts, including how and by whom they were designed and exactly who (experts, courts, arbitrators, or international organizations) interpreted, upheld, and established the legal validity of these contracts. By exploring such micro-level aspects of market exchanges, this collection unveils the contractual knowledge that led to the globalization of markets over the last century.