156 Jan Rambfrg 2 Some important factors affecting legal principles in the 20th century It would seemto me that developments in the field of consumer law-^ and commercial law have occurred to such extent in the later half of the 20th century that one can truly say that we find ourselves in a completely different situation as compared with the mid-century position. In the legal education at that time very little, if anything, was said about — consumerism — standardization of contracts, not to speak of electronic transmission of data"* — environmentalism^ and — internationalization of the lawoutside the field of conflict of laws. True, considerable contributions to unification of the law had been made already in the early 1900’s by various international organizations, such as Comité Maritime International in the field of maritime law^ and by the International Chamber of Commerce through Incoterms 1936 for the interpretation of trade terms.^ Also, efforts had been initiated within Unidroit for the creation of an international Sale of Goods Convention later to be followed by the unification of international trade lawunder the auspices of UNbodies, such as UNCITRAL and UNCTAD. Nevertheless, I think it is true to say that with these exceptions there was no real internationalization of the law. Swedish lawyers at least had not yet become internationally minded. 3 The impact on some important legal principles 3.1 Theprinciple offreedomofcontract To my knowledge no one has better explained, in an historical perspective, the rise and fall of the principle of freedomof contract than Professor Atiyah in his impressive work.** We also had the pleasure to listen to himat the Stockholm ^ It is nowadays frequently suggested that contract lawshould reserve a special branch for such contracts where traditional principles are discarded in order to obtain the desirable protection for the weaker party. See, e.g., C. Sandgren, En social avtalsrätt?. Juridisk tidskrift, 1992/93 pp. 456483 and T. Wilhelmsson, Social civilrätt, Helsinki 1987, and id., “Social Force Majeure” - A new Concept in Nordic Consumer Law, Journal of Consumer Policy, 1990. ■* See, e.g., H. B. Thomsen and B. Wheble, Trading with EDI - The legal issues, London 1989, and the 1991 Yearbook of UNCITRAL (UNpubl. No. E.93.V.2) p. 381 et seq. ^ See, e.g., J. H. Bates and C. J. W. Benson, Marine Environmental Law[Lloyd’s Shipping Law Library, London 1993]. ^ See, e.g., J. Ramberg, Unification of maritime Law - A success story with happy end? [Lestskrift L. Hjerner, Stockholm 1990, pp. 513—524]. ^ See, e.g., J. Ramberg, Guide to Incoterms 1990, ICCpubl. No. 461/90. ** P. S. Atiyah, The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract, Oxford 1979 (reprinted 1985, 1988).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=