Abstract
This report looks at the work of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in working to harmonize the law of financial leasing. It looks at five instruments on leasing that have been drafted or adopted in fulfillment of the work of UNIDROIT. In determining whether an arrangement is a true leasing contract, where only a right of use is anticipated, or a sale with transfer of ownership, many countries generally look at the totally of the circumstances, but others take a formal approach. In many cases, a distinction is made either by judges or legislators between commercial leasing and consumer transactions. Other issues covered by the report include shifting of legal responsibility between the lessor to supplier, liability to third parties, protection against lessee’s insolvency, and default remedies of the lessor.
III.A.3, Le credit-bail financier et son unification par UNIDROIT.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
At the time of writing, there are 63 Member States: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Serbia, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
- 2.
See infra 14.8.
- 3.
For an extensive discussion of this concept, see Roy Goode, Herbert Kronke, Ewan McKendrick, Transnational Commercial Law. Text, Cases, and Materials (2007), 1.37–1.67.
- 4.
All instruments, including travaux préparatoires, continually updated information of their respective status, commentary, bibliography etc. are accessible at www.unidroit.org.
- 5.
Initially the advisory board, followed by two sessions of a committee of governmental experts, and, for the instrument’s adoption a joint session of the General Assembly and the committee of governmental experts.
- 6.
Belgium, Canada (common-law provinces), China, Croatia, France, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey, United States of America. In addition, statistics and other illustrative material on certain developments in Latin America as a region were provided.
- 7.
Italy and Canada (Quebec). There was, moreover, hope that a report on Germany could be submitted. Some National Reports had been published at the time of the congress in collections under the auspices of the national committees. All reports (including this general report) will be published in the Uniform Law Review/Revue de droit uniforme 2011.
- 8.
Comments on (1) “Designated Entry Points” Article (2) “Territorial Units” Article Presented by China, DCME Doc No 27, 24/10/01, in Diplomatic Conference to Adopt a Mobile Equipment and an Aircraft Protocol. Acts and Proceedings 172 (2006).
- 9.
This noun – rather than ‘jurisdiction’ – is deliberately employed with a view to including multi-unit states.
- 10.
U.C.C. § 2A-103(1)(g).
- 11.
Obviously, what may appear as sloppy drafting is irrelevant for legal systems in all non-English-speaking countries.
- 12.
The Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China was adopted at the Second Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress on March 15, 1999. Lease contracts are regulated in arts. 212–36, financial leases in arts. 237–50. On the state prior to 1999 and the reform process, see Herbert Kronke, “Der Gesetzgeber als Rechtsvergleicher, Aspekte der chinesischen Vertragsrechtsreform,” in Festschrift für Ulrich Drobnig zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Jürgen Basedow, Hein Kötz, Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998), 579.
- 13.
See generally Herbert Kronke, “Internationality and Connecting Factors in Conflict of Laws and Transnational Commercial Law,” in Convergence and Divergence in Private International Law – Liber Amicorum Kurt Siehr, ed. Katharina Boele-Woelki, Talia Einhorn, Daniel Girsberger and Symeon Symeonides (2010), 57.
- 14.
For an overview, see Ronald Cuming, “Legal Regulation of International Financial Leasing: The 1988 Ottawa Convention,” Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law 7 (1989): 39; Carsten Dageförde, Internationales Finanzierungsleasing (1992); Franco Ferrari, General principles and international uniform commercial law conventions: A study of the 1980 Vienna Sales Convention and the 1988 Unidroit Conventions,” Unif. L. Rev. 451 (1997); Daniel Girsberger, “Leasing,” in Handbuch Internationales Wirtschaftsrecht, ed. Herbert Kronke, Werner Melis and Anton Schnyder (Köln: O. Schmidt, 2005), 757–68; Martin Stanford, “Explanatory Report to the Preliminary Draft Uniform Rules in International Financial Leasing,” Rev. dr. unif. 76 (1984).
- 15.
Explanatory Report on the Draft Convention on International Financial Leasing, in Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Draft Unidroit Conventions on International Factoring and International Financial Leasing. Acts and Proceedings, I, 27 no. 3 (1991).
- 16.
Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and Luxembourg Protocol Thereto on Matters Specific to Railway Rolling Stock. Official Commentary by Professor Sir Roy Goode CBE, QC, as approved for distribution by the UNIDROIT Governing Council pursuant to Resolution No. 4 adopted by the Luxembourg Diplomatic Conference (2008) Article IX, Comment 5.27, 5.37–5.41.
- 17.
For an overview, see Roy Goode, Herbert Kronke, Ewan McKendrick, supra note 3, 4.33–4.48, 6.10–6.12.
- 18.
See Jeffrey Wool, “Rethinking the Notion of Uniformity in the Drafting of International Commercial Law: A Preliminary Proposal for the Development of a Policy-Based Unification Model,” Uniform Law Review 46 (1997); idem, “Economic Analysis and Harmonised Modernisation of Private Law,” Uniform Law Review 389 (2003); Herbert Kronke, “The Takeover Directive and the ‘Commercial Approach’ to Harmonisation of Private Law,” in Private and Commercial Law in a European and Global Context – Festschrift für Norbert Horn ed. Klaus Peter Berger, Georg Borges, Harald Herrmann, Andreas Schlüter & Ulrich Wackerbarth (Berlin: De Gruyter Recht, 2006), 445.
- 19.
The Legal Advisory Panel of the Aviation Working Group – AWG.
- 20.
See The Uniform Law Foundation (ed.), Contract Practices Under the Cape Town Convention, Cape Town Paper Series, Volume I, Cwmbran (2004); idem, Advanced Contract and Opinion Practices Under the Cape Town Convention, Cape Town Paper Series, Volume 2, Oxford and Portland, Oregon (2008).
- 21.
For an early analysis by one of the pioneers and fathers of work on leasing at UNIDROIT, see Ronald Cuming, “Model Rules for Lease Financing: A Possible Complement to the UNIDROIT Convention on International Financial Leasing,” Uniform Law Review 371 (1998).
- 22.
For details, see Official Commentary to the UNIDROIT Model Law on Leasing, UNIDROIT 2010 – Study LIXA Doc. 24, Uniform Law Review (2010): 548–609.
- 23.
See, in particular, the first, second, fourth and eighth recitals of the Preamble.
- 24.
On the available types of instrument, see Roy Goode, Herbert Kronke and Ewan McKendrick, supra note 3, 5.07–5.16.
- 25.
The Model Law is reproduced in Uniform Law Review 262 (2002) with an introduction by Boris Kozolchyk and John Wilson, The Organization of American States: The New Model Law on Secured Transactions at 69; most recently, see John Wilson, “Model Registry Regulations under the Model Inter-American Law on Secured Transactions,” Uniform Law Review 515 (2010).
- 26.
For a recent evaluation, see Alejandro Garro, “The OAS-sponsored Model Law on Secured Transactions: Gestation and Implementation,” Uniform Law Review 391 (2010).
- 27.
For an overview, see Spiros Bazinas, “The Work of UNCITRAL on Security Interests,” Uniform Law Review 315 (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kronke, H. (2012). Financial Leasing and Its Unification by UNIDROIT. In: Brown, K., Snyder, D. (eds) General Reports of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law/Rapports Généraux du XVIIIème Congrès de l’Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2353-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2354-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLaw and Criminology (R0)