International Negotiable Instruments

For centuries, bills of exchange, cheques, and promissory notes ('negotiable instruments') have played a vital role in the smooth operation of domestic and international commerce. The payment mechanisms have been subject to rapid technological progress and law has needed to adapt and respond to ensure that the legal framework remains relevant and effective. This book provides a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the question of applicable law to negotiable instruments. Given significant differences in the treatment of important issues under the laws governing negotiable instruments of the various jurisdictions, the question of applicable law plays a key role in contemporary commerce. Resolution of such issues frequently has cross-border dimensions, affecting residents from different countries, and meeting the needs of commerce as it rapidly moves towards an online mode of communication and documentation. To such ends, the book elaborates on the conceptual underpinnings of negotiable instruments law, provides an overview of the key differences between the systems in this area of law and contemplates the question of applicable law. The book provides a systematic inquiry into the relevant principles of law, statutes, and international conventions, and analyses the underlying rationale for both applicable and negotiable instruments laws' rules. In this way, it aims to identify and resolve some of the existing uncertainties in the case law and literature with respect to one of the central aspects of commerce. Specifically, the authors challenge the conventional view according to which the fundamentals of negotiable instruments law are excluded from the scope and insights of general contract and property law doctrines and as such not subject to the general conflict of laws rules governing them. The authors make concrete suggestions for reform and contemplate on the nature of the legal rules that can also be applied in the digital age of communication.

I - Negotiability, Negotiable Instruments, and the Law of Bills, Notes, and Cheques
II - General Law and Negotiable Instruments: A Brief Historical Perspective
III - Choice of Law Question, Three Major Developments, and the Need for Harmonization
IV - Negotiable Instruments Choice-of-Law Rules in the Various Systems
V - The Foreign Element and Party Autonomy in Negotiable Instruments Law
VI - Choice-of-Law Rules in the Absence of Party Autonomy: The Most Significant Relationship Principle
VII - The Boundaries of the Proposed Argument
VIII - International Negotiable Instruments in the Electronic Age
XI - Conclusion

Benjamin Geva is Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. He specializes and teaches in the areas of commercial, financial, and banking law, and has published extensively on these topics, including in leading legal journals and Bank Collections and Payment Transactions (Oxford University Press, 2001). Under the IMF technical assistance program, he has advised and drafted key financial sector and payment systems legislation for the authorities of several countries, and he is also a member of MOCOMILA. Sagi Peari is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) and the Director of the Business Law Major at the University of Western Australia Law School where he teaches private law, commercial law and their cross-border dimensions. He has published extensively on these topics, including articles in leading legal journals and a monograph, The Foundation of Choice-of-Law: Choice & Equality (Oxford University Press, 2018).