Introduction

Subject(s):

International financial law — International monetary law — Choice of law — Relationship between international and domestic law

This introductory chapter provides an overview of negotiable instruments. Bills of exchange, cheques, and promissory notes are the main classical negotiable instruments. Through their evolution, fusion, and sophistication, they have remained a primary tool for everyday commercial activity, serving as one of the main methods of payment and credit and one of the cornerstones of the contemporary bank-centred system. While the principal fundamentals governing negotiable instruments in the various legal systems tend to be based on a common set of organizing ideas, detailed rules vary from place to place. This requires the identification and knowledge of the national law that should govern an international negotiable instrument. This book offers a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the choice-of-law rules applicable to negotiable instruments. It argues that the complex case of international negotiable instruments law should be analysed through the lens of traditional contract and property choice-of-law doctrines rather than by crafting new specially designed rules for negotiable instruments.