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23 Syracuse J. Int'l L. & Com. 67 (1997)
An International Contract Law Forumla: The Informality of International Business Transactions Plus the Internationalization of Contract Law Equals Unexpected Contractual Liability, L=(ii)2

handle is hein.journals/sjilc23 and id is 71 raw text is: AN INTERNATIONAL CONTRACT LAW FORMULA: THE INFORMALITY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS PLUS THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CONTRACT LAW EQUALS UNEXPECTED CONTRACTUAL LIABILITY, L=(ii)2 Professor Larry A. DiMatteo* The interest in general principles of law both measures the extent of convergence of legal rules and, under appropriate conditions, facilitates further convergence.' I. INTRODUCTION Albert Einstein is best known for his special and general theories of relativity. The time-space continuum can be manipulated through the process of speed to bend time and thus travel through it. A theory of relativity can be ventured for the international law of contracts as well. The speed of the process of the internationalization of contract law can result in the bending or shifting of the enforceability-nonenforceability continuum as it pertains to business persons' use of informal business letters, instruments, and correspondences. The relative likelihood of un- expected contractual liability (L) is a function of the informality (i) of a business relationship or correspondence and the universalization or in- ternationalization (i) of principles of contractual liability. The (i) func- tions will be squared to illustrate that the speed of internationalization is positively related to unexpected contractual liability. In short, an infor- mal correspondence previously considered to be nonbinding in nature may be transformed into an unexpected liability through an international recognition of enforceability at odds with a given national legal system's holding of nonenforceability. The speed of the internationalization of contract law has been accelerating. This article examines the phenom- ena of internationalization of contract law. A special emphasis is placed upon the potential for the American business person of unexpected con- tractual liability in the wake of the ratification of the Convention for the International Sale of Goods. * Assistant Professor of Business Law, University of Miami School of Business, BA/BA, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1979; J.D., Cornell Law School, 1982. 1. John H. Merryman, On the Convergence (and Divergence) of the Civil Law and the Com- mon Law, 17 ST'A. J. INr'L L. 357, 377 (1981).

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