Жеке халықаралық құқықты үйлестіру жөніндегі үкіметаралық ұйым

Intergovernmental legal organization

UNIDROIT (formally, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law; French: Institut international pour l'unification du droit privé) is an intergovernmental organization whose objective is to harmonize private international law across countries through uniform rules, international conventions, and the production of model laws, sets of principles, guides and guidelines. Established in 1926 as part of the League of Nations, it was reestablished in 1940 following the League's dissolution through a multilateral agreement, the UNIDROIT Statute. As of 2023 UNIDROIT has 65 member states. UNIDROIT has prepared multiple conventions (treaties), but has also developed soft law instruments. An example are the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. Distinctly different from the Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) adopted by UNCITRAL, the UNIDROIT Principles do not apply as a matter of law, but only when chosen by the parties as their contractual regime.

The seat of UNIDROIT is in Rome, Italy, between via Nazionale and via Panisperna, occupying the Villa Aldobrandini, a 17th century princely villa that borders the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, to the south.

Once a subject has been included in UNIDROIT's Work Programme, the Secretariat is responsible for preparing a feasibility study and a preliminary comparative law analysis to evaluate the relevance and feasibility of the proposed reform. This study will be presented to the Governing Council for review, and if considered appropriate, a committee will be established to draft a preliminary project for a convention or other legal instruments.

A preliminary draft instrument prepared by the study group is presented to the Governing Council for approval and guidance on the next steps. If it is a preliminary draft Convention, the Council usually requests the Secretariat to form a committee of governmental experts to finalize a draft Convention for submission to a Diplomatic Conference. If an alternative to a preliminary draft Convention is deemed unsuitable for the committee, the Council authorizes its publication and dissemination by UNIDROIT. Participation in UNIDROIT committees is open to representatives of all Member States, and additional States, international organizations, and professional associations may be invited as observers. The finalized draft Convention by the committee is submitted to the Governing Council for approval. If it reflects a consensus among the participating States and has a good chance of adoption at a Diplomatic Conference, the Council authorizes its transmission to the Conference. The Diplomatic Conference, convened by a UNIDROIT Member State, adopts the draft Convention as an international Convention.

UNIDROIT maintains cooperative relationships with various international organizations, both intergovernmental and non governmental, through cooperation agreements at the inter Secretariat level. The Hague Conference on Private International Law, UNIDROIT, and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), known as "the three sisters," are the primary private law formulating agencies. UNIDROIT's expertise in the international unification of law also leads to commissioned work for other organizations, including comparative law studies and drafting Conventions that serve as the foundation for international instruments in those organizations.

In order to fulfill its statutory objectives, UNIDROIT recognizes the critical importance of having access to current and comprehensive legal information from diverse jurisdictions. However, obtaining such information can be challenging. Therefore, UNIDROIT establishes and maintains a network of correspondents comprising academic and practicing lawyers from both Member and non Member States. These correspondents are appointed by the Governing Council and serve as valuable sources of legal knowledge, enabling UNIDROIT to stay informed about the state of the law in different countries.

The Institute has been publishing the "Uniform Law Review" on a quarterly basis since 1996. It is a journal of UNIDROIT, published by the Oxford University Press. The working documents can be found on the UNIDROIT website. The institute's library provides access to all UNIDROIT publications, as well as a collection of other texts and journals, comprising a database of 260,000 texts and currently featuring 450 periodicals. Remote access is available to the main electronic legal databases, such as Westlaw, EUR Lex, and UNILEX, which include the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contract