P5126 INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

This chapter deals with two broad issues involving the legal environment. The first issue is concerned with the problems that arise with international commercial contracts and settling disputes when they arise. Since there is no international commercial law or international commercial courts, disputes must be settled under the laws of one of the countries where the parties of the contract reside or, if an arbitration clause is included in the contract, by arbitration. Although there is no international commercial law per se, the agreement to enforce arbitration decisions that exists among a large number of countries does create a system that approaches international commercial court. The second issue concerns the common law bases for the U.S. legal system which creates problems for U.S. companies when interpreting the laws in countries whose legal systems are based either on code, socialist, or Islamic law. A review of the different legal systems is important to ap