Elizaveta Shegay

Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

1) Seat of Arbitration
(1981)
The legal or juridical home of an arbitration. • An arbitration award is “made” at the arbitral
seat. — Also termed place of arbitration; arbitral situs.
2) International Arbitration
n. (15c)
A dispute-resolution process in which the disputing parties choose one or more neutral third
parties to make a final and binding decision resolving the dispute. • The parties to the dispute
may choose a third party directly by mutual agreement, or indirectly, such as by agreeing to have
an arbitration organization select the third party. — Also termed (redundantly) binding
arbitration. See ARBITRATOR; EXPERT DETERMINATION. Cf. MEDIATION (1). —
arbitrate, vb. — arbitral, adj.
3) Arbitration agreement
(18c)
An agreement by which the parties consent to resolve one or more disputes by arbitration. • An
arbitration agreement can consist of a clause in a contract or a stand-alone agreement and can be
entered into either before a dispute has arisen between the parties (a predispute arbitration
agreement) or after a dispute has arisen between the parties (a postdispute arbitration agreement
or submission agreement).
4) Arbitration clause
(1828)
A contractual provision mandating arbitration — and thereby avoiding litigation — of disputes
about the contracting parties' rights, duties, and liabilities.
5) Rule of procedure
A judicial rule or manner for carrying on a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution. — Also termed
procedural rule.
6) Proceeding
(16c)
1. The regular and orderly progression of a lawsuit, including all acts and events between the
time of commencement and the entry of judgment.
2. Any procedural means for seeking redress from a tribunal or agency.
3. An act or step that is part of a larger action.
4. The business conducted by a court or other official body; a hearing.
5. Bankruptcy. A particular dispute or matter arising within a pending case — as opposed to the
case as a whole.
7) Discretion
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

(14c)
1. Wise conduct and management exercised without constraint; the ability coupled with the
tendency to act with prudence and propriety.
2. Freedom in the exercise of judgment; the power of free decision-making.
3. Criminal & tort law. The capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, sufficient to make a
person responsible for his or her own actions.
4. A public official's power or right to act in certain circumstances according to personal
judgment and conscience, often in an official or representative capacity. — Also termed
discretionary power.
8) Conflict of laws
(1827)
1. A difference between the laws of different states or countries in a case in which a transaction
or occurrence central to the case has a connection to two or more jurisdictions. — Often
shortened to conflict. Cf. CHOICE OF LAW.
“When a court is called upon to decide an ordinary case or controversy, the operative facts upon
which judgment is based have, or are assumed to have, occurred within the territorial limits of
the state or country where the court sits. Very often, however, the operative facts, or a part of
them, have a connection with some other jurisdiction. Thus, a court may have to determine the
validity or legal effect of an agreement as a contract in a case where the agreement was reached
in another state or country, or the offer was accepted there. Again, a tort claim may be predicated
upon injury which has been incurred outside the territorial limits of the state where the court sits.
Or, the validity of a marriage celebrated abroad or that of a foreign divorce may be the factor
upon which the conflicting claims of the parties depend. In the field of property the issue may
turn upon the legal effect of an attempted transfer in one jurisdiction of property, real or
personal, located in another or upon that of a foreign will. In cases such as these, which are
illustrative only and not exhaustive, the foreign fact element raises questions of the effect to be
given at the forum to foreign law. That branch of the law which deals with questions of the
operative effect at the forum of foreign law because of a foreign fact element in the case is
sometimes called Private International Law but in this country more usually Conflict of Laws.”
George Wilfred Stumberg, Principles of Conflict of Laws 1 (2d ed. 1951).
2. The body of jurisprudence that undertakes to reconcile such differences or to decide what law
is to govern in these situations; the principles of choice of law. — Often shortened (in sense 2) to
conflicts. — Also termed (in international contexts) private international law; international
private law. See private international law under INTERNATIONAL LAW.
“The phrase [conflict of laws], although inadequate, because it does not cover questions as to
jurisdiction, or as to the execution of foreign judgments, is better than any other.” Thomas E.
Holland, The Elements of Jurisprudence 421 (13th ed. 1924).
9) Application
(15c)
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

1. A request or petition. See COPYRIGHT APPLICATION; PATENT APPLICATION;

TRADEMARK APPLICATION.
2. MOTION.
3. Bankruptcy. A request for an order not requiring advance notice and an opportunity for a
hearing before the order is issued.
4. The process by which a decision-maker categorizes the legal facts at issue and hence
ascertains the rule of law that is to govern them.
10) Govern
vb. (14c)
(Of a precedent) to control a point in issue <the Smith case will govern the outcome of the
appeal> .
11) Law
(bef. 12c)
1. The regime that orders human activities and relations through systematic application of the
force of politically organized society, or through social pressure, backed by force, in such a
society; the legal system <respect and obey the law> .
2. The aggregate of legislation, judicial precedents, and accepted legal principles; the body of
authoritative grounds of judicial and administrative action; esp., the body of rules, standards, and
principles that the courts of a particular jurisdiction apply in deciding controversies brought
before them <the law of the land> .
3. The set of rules or principles dealing with a specific area of a legal system <copyright law> .
4. The judicial and administrative process; legal action and proceedings <when settlement
negotiations failed, they submitted their dispute to the law> .
5. A statute <Congress passed a law> . — Abbr. L.
6. COMMON LAW <law but not equity> .
7. The legal profession <she spent her entire career in law> .
“Some twenty years ago I pointed out two ideas running through definitions of law: one an
imperative idea, an idea of a rule laid down by the lawmaking organ of a politically organized
society, deriving its force from the authority of the sovereign; and the other a rational or ethical
idea, an idea of a rule of right and justice deriving its authority from its intrinsic reasonableness
or conformity to ideals of right and merely recognized, not made, by the sovereign.” Roscoe
Pound, “More About the Nature of Law,” in Legal Essays in Tribute to Orrin Kip McMurray at
513, 515 (Max Radin & Alexander M. Kidd eds., 1935).“All law is the law of a group of
individuals or of groups made up of individuals. No one can make a law purely for himself. He
may form a resolution, frame an ambition, or adopt a rule, but these are private prescriptions, not
laws.” Tony Honoré, Making Law Bind: Essays Legal and Philosophical 33 (1987).“It will help
to distinguish three senses of the word ‘law.’ The first is law as a distinctive social institution;
that is the sense invoked when we ask whether primitive law is really law. The second is law as a
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

collection of sets of propositions — the sets we refer to as antitrust law, the law of torts, the
Statute of Frauds, and so on. The third is law as a source of rights, duties, and powers, as in the
sentence ‘The law forbids the murdering heir to inherit.’” Richard A. Posner, The Problems of
Jurisprudence 220–21 (1990).
12) Principle
n. (14c)
A basic rule, law, or doctrine; esp., one of the fundamental tenets of a system.
13) Territoriality
Int'l law.
The principle that a country has the right of sovereignty within its borders.
“Three maxims formulated by the seventeenth-century Dutch scholar Ulrich Huber undergird the
modern concept of territoriality: (1) a state's laws have force only within the state's boundaries;
(2) anyone found within the state's boundaries is subject to the state's authority; and (3) comity
will discipline sovereign exercises of authority so that the territorial effect of each state's laws is
respected.” Paul Goldstein, International Copyright: Principles, Law, and Practice 64 (2001).
14) Territorial
adj. (17c)
Having to do with a particular geographical area.
15) Litigation
n. (17c)
1. The process of carrying on a lawsuit <the attorney advised his client to make a generous
settlement offer in order to avoid litigation> .
2. A lawsuit itself <several litigations pending before the court> . — litigatory, litigational, adj.
“In litigation you either take the initiative or you stand on the defensive, and your attack or
defense must be supported upon one or both of these two elements. The aim of an intelligent
preparation is to secure for your client a superior advantage over his adversary on the law, or on
the facts, or on both. If by prudent provision you can be stronger on the facts under the law, you
will win, or if your case be in the proper construction of the law, which you can show, it may be
by great research and exhaustiveness of presentation to be for you, again you have the
preponderance. But if you can present superior combinations, both of law and fact, then you are
doubly safe. The right preparation of a case is scientific, and its object is to present for the client
at the trial, on those points of controversy, which are cardinal or controlling, the ascendency as
already explained. A little observance of trials and arguments will give the reader a clearer
insight into the subject than many more pages, however plainly written and filled it might be to
overflowing, with illustrations. As the student observes the argument after the evidence is all in,
he will often detect for himself, the preponderance of the prevailing party, and he will likewise,
while hearing discussion of legal questions, begin to see before the judge delivers his opinion,
who will win it and how. Napoleon's saying, that the art of war consisted all in being the stronger
on a certain point, is accepted as a maxim. So in litigation, there are turning points, either of law
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

or fact, where superiority will win for the party who has it.” John C. Reed, Practical Suggestions
for the Management of Law-suits 20–21 (1876).
16) Country
(14c)
1. A country or political state; STATE (1).
2. The territory of such a country or state.
17) Adoption
n. (14c)
1. Family law. The creation by judicial order of a parent-child relationship between two parties
who usu. are unrelated; the relation of parent and child created by law between persons who are
not in fact parent and child. • This relationship is brought about only after a determination that
the child is an orphan or has been abandoned, or that the parents' parental rights have been
terminated by court order. Adoption creates a parent-child relationship between the adopted child
and the adoptive parents with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that attach to that
relationship, though there may be agreed exceptions. Adoption is distinguishable from
legitimation and from fosterage. Adoption usu. refers to an act between persons unrelated by
blood; legitimation refers to an act between persons related by blood. Universally, a decree of
adoption confers legitimate status on the adopted child. Adoption is permanent; fosterage is a
temporary arrangement for a child's care. See adopted child, foster child under CHILD. Cf.
LEGITIMATION (2); FOSTER CARE (1). — adopt, vb.
“Although adoption is found in many societies, ancient and modern, primitive and civilized, and
is recognized by the civil law, it was unknown at common law. Accordingly, adoption is entirely
a creature of statute …” Elias Clark et al., Gratuitous Transfers: Wills, Intestate Succession,
Trusts, Gifts, Future Interests, and Estate and Gift Taxation Cases and Materials 73–74 (4th ed.
1999).
2. Roman law. The legal process of creating a parent-child relationship with a young person who
is still under the power of another father. • The adopted person became part of the new
paterfamilias's agnatic family with exactly the same standing as children (or grandchildren) by
blood. This was later modified by Justinian. Cf. ADROGATION.
3. Contracts. The process by which a person agrees to assume a contract previously made for that
person's benefit, such as a newly formed corporation's acceptance of a preincorporation contract.
4. Trademarks. The mental act necessary to acquire legal rights in a trademark, consisting of
knowledge and intention to use a trademark on or in connection with a product or service in
commerce.
5. Parliamentary law. A deliberative assembly's act of agreeing to a motion or the text of a
resolution, order, rule, or other paper or proposal, or of endorsing as its own statement the
complete contents of a report. — Also termed acceptance; consent; passage. Cf.
RATIFICATION; REJECTION (3). — adopt, vb. — adoptive, adj.
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

“As applied to an assembly's action with respect to board or committee reports or any of their
contents, the expressions adopt, accept, and agree to are all equivalent — that is, the text adopted
becomes in effect the act or statement of the assembly.
It is usually best to use the word adopt, however, since it is the least likely to be misunderstood.”
Henry M. Robert III et al., Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised § 51, at 508 (11th ed. 2011).
18) Regulate
vb. (15c)
1. To control (an activity or process) esp. through the implementation of rules.
2. To make (a machine or one's body) work at a regular speed, temperature, etc.
19) Authorities
(13c)
1. The official right or permission to act, esp. to act legally on another's behalf; esp., the power of
one person to affect another's legal relations by acts done in accordance with the other's
manifestations of assent; the power delegated by a principal to an agent <authority to sign the
contract> . — Also termed power over other persons. See AGENCY.
“The term ‘authority,’ like the term ‘contract,’ may easily be used in three senses, and is
therefore a term to be avoided when accurate reasoning is desirable. It may be used to mean (1)
the operative acts of the principal, (2) a physical document executed by the principal, or (3) the
legal relations consequent upon the preceding operative facts (1) and (2), and especially the legal
power conferred upon the agent to bring the principal into new legal relations without any further
action by the principal. The operative facts may be spoken words, a document together with the
acts necessary to execute it, or other conduct by the principal apparently expressing an intention
to create a power. Hereafter, the word ‘authority’ will be used to denote these operative facts; in
other cases the word power will usually be substituted. This latter word is not so likely to be
taken in shifting senses, in spite of the fact that ‘power of attorney’ generally means a physical
document under seal.” William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 508 n.1 (Arthur L.
Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919).
2. The power a person has through an official position; governmental power or jurisdiction
<within the court's authority> .
3. An official organization or government department with particular responsibilities and
decision-making powers; esp., a governmental agency or corporation that administers a public
enterprise <transit authority> . — Also termed public authority.
4. A legal writing taken as definitive or decisive; esp., a judicial or administrative decision cited
as a precedent <this case is good authority in Massachusetts> . • The term includes not only the
decisions of tribunals but also statutes, ordinances, and administrative rulings.
5. A source, such as a statute, case, or treatise, cited in support of a legal argument <the brief's
table of authorities> .
6. Someone whose knowledge and opinions on a subject are respected because of proven
scholarship and expertise.
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

20) Party
(13c)
1. Someone who takes part in a transaction <a party to the contract> .
“Note, that if an Indenture be made between two as Parties thereto in the Beginning, and in the
Deed one of them grants or lets a Thing to another who is not named in the Beginning, he is not
Party to the Deed, nor shall take any Thing thereby.” John Rastell, Les Termes de la Ley 471
(26th ed. 1721).“A person who takes part in a legal transaction or proceeding is said to be a party
to it. Thus, if an agreement, conveyance, lease, or the like, is entered into between A. and B.,
they are said to be parties to it; and the same expression is often, though not very correctly,
applied to the persons named as the grantors or releasors in a deed-poll.” 2 Stewart Rapalje &
Robert L. Lawrence, A Dictionary of American and English Law 930 (1883).
2. One by or against whom a lawsuit is brought; anyone who both is directly interested in a
lawsuit and has a right to control the proceedings, make a defense, or appeal from an adverse
judgment; litigant <a party to the lawsuit> . • For purposes of res judicata, a party to a lawsuit is
a person who has been named as a party and has a right to control the lawsuit either personally,
or, if not fully competent, through someone appointed to protect the person's interests. In law, all
nonparties are known as “strangers” to the lawsuit.
“Those persons who institute actions for the recovery of their rights, or the redress of their
wrongs, and those against whom the actions are instituted, are the parties to the actions. The
former are, in actions at common law, called plaintiffs, and the latter, defendants. In real actions,
the parties are styled demandant and tenant; in appeals, appellant and respondent; in admiralty
practice, libellant and respondent; in equity, plaintiff (or complainant) and defendant; on writs of
error, plaintiff in error and defendant in error; on certioraris, relator and defendant; in criminal
proceedings, the king, or the people, or state, or commonwealth, and prisoner; (the person on
whose complaint the proceedings were instituted being styled the prosecutor;) in the Scotch law,
pursuer and defender; and in the civil law, actor and reus.” Oliver L. Barbour, A Summary of the
Law of Parties to Actions at Law and Suits in Equity 18 (1864).
3. Any one of two or more groups of people contending for rival opinions or policies within a
society or community; POLITICAL PARTY.
4. Partisanship; party zeal.
5. A number of people assembled for some purpose, esp. for amusement or entertainment; also,
an entertainment to which a number of people are invited.
6. A detachment within a company of soldiers or other people. See SEARCH PARTY.
7. Someone concerned in or privy to a matter; esp., someone involved in either of two sides in an
affair <he was party to those secrets> .
21) Jurisdiction
n. (14c)
1. A government's general power to exercise authority over all persons and things within its
territory; esp., a state's power to create interests that will be recognized under common-law
principles as valid in other states <New Jersey's jurisdiction> .
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

2. A court's power to decide a case or issue a decree <the constitutional grant of federal-question
jurisdiction> . — Also termed (in sense 2) competent jurisdiction; (in both senses) coram judice;
adjudicatory jurisdiction.
“Rules of jurisdiction in a sense speak from a position outside the court system and prescribe the
authority of the courts within the system. They are to a large extent constitutional rules. The
provisions of the U.S. Constitution specify the outer limits of the subject-matter jurisdiction of
the federal courts and authorize Congress, within those limits, to establish by statute the
organization and jurisdiction of the federal courts. Thus, Article III of the Constitution defines
the judicial power of the United States to include cases arising under federal law and cases
between parties of diverse state citizenship as well as other categories. The U.S. Constitution,
particularly the Due Process Clause, also establishes limits on the jurisdiction of the state courts.
These due process limitations traditionally operate in two areas: jurisdiction of the subject matter
and jurisdiction over persons. Within each state, the court system is established by state
constitutional provisions or by a combination of such provisions and implementing legislation,
which together define the authority of the various courts within the system.” Fleming James Jr.,
Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. & John Leubsdorf, Civil Procedure § 2.1, at 55 (5th ed. 2001).
3. A geographic area within which political or judicial authority may be exercised <the accused
fled to another jurisdiction> .
4. A political or judicial subdivision within such an area <other jurisdictions have decided the
issue differently> . Cf. VENUE (1), (2). — jurisdictional, adj.
22) Finding of fact
(18c)
A determination by a judge, jury, or administrative agency of a fact supported by the evidence in
the record, usu. presented at the trial or hearing <he agreed with the jury's finding of fact that the
driver did not stop before proceeding into the intersection> . — Often shortened to finding. See
FACT-FINDER. Cf. CONCLUSION OF FACT; CONCLUSION OF LAW.
23) Conclusion of law
(17c)
1. An inference on a question of law, made as a result of a factual showing, no further evidence
being required; a legal inference.
2. A judge's final decision on a legal point raised in a trial or hearing, particularly one that is vital
to reaching a judgment. Cf. FINDING OF FACT; LEGAL CONCLUSION.
24) Internal affairs
A division or bureau within a department, usu. one in charge of investigating allegations of
misconduct or the mishandling of bureaucratic matters.
25) Sovereignty
(14c)
1. Supreme dominion, authority, or rule.
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

“The principle of legal sovereignty is an abstraction from a number of relevant rules: (1) Without
its consent, a subject of international law is bound by applicable rules of universal or general
international customary law and general principles of law recognised by civilised nations. (2)
Additional international obligations may be imposed on any subject of international law only
with its consent. (3) Unless the territorial jurisdiction of a State is excluded or limited by rules of
international law, its exercise is exclusively the concern of the State in question. (4) Subjects of
international law may claim potential jurisdiction over persons or things outside the territorial
jurisdiction. In the absence of permissive rules to the contrary, however, they may actually
exercise such jurisdiction in concrete instances only within their territories. (5) Unless authorised
by permissive rules to the contrary, intervention by subjects of international law in one another's
sphere of exclusive domestic jurisdiction constitutes a breach of international law.” Georg
Schwarzenberger, A Manual of International Law 65 (5th ed. 1967).“For the practical purposes
of an international lawyer, sovereignty is not a metaphysical concept, nor is it part of the essence
of statehood; it is merely a term which designates an aggregate of particular and very extensive
claims that states habitually make for themselves in their relations with other states. To the
extent that sovereignty has come to imply that there is something inherent in the nature of states
that makes it impossible for them to be subjected to law, it is a false doctrine which the facts of
international relations do not support. But to the extent that it reminds us that the challenge of
subjection of states to law is an aim as yet only very imperfectly realized, it is a doctrine which
we cannot afford to disregard.” Andrew Clapham, Brierly's Law of Nations: An Introduction to
the Role of International Law in International Relations 46 (7th ed. 2012).“In origins and
evolution, sovereignty is definitely a Western concept, and it was not shared by other regions
until the twentieth century. (Certain non-Western parallels do exist, however.) In contemporary
discussion, the concept of sovereignty is accepted as an indispensable term in both academic and
diplomatic discussions of political life throughout the world. Its importance is confirmed in
Marxist, realist, and liberal political discourse, but the range of usage varies widely, reflecting
differences in ideology and political priorities. The very centrality of sovereignty ensures its
contested character. In each setting, meanings are attributed to sovereignty that accord with the
interpreter's project. There is little neutral ground when it comes to sovereignty.” Richard Falk,
“Sovereignty,” in 2 The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics 398, 398 (Joel Krieger ed.,
2013).
2. The supreme political authority of an independent state.
3. The state itself.
“It is well to [distinguish] the senses in which the word Sovereignty is used. In the ordinary
popular sense it means Supremacy, the right to demand obedience. Although the idea of actual
power is not absent, the prominent idea is that of some sort of title to exercise control. An
ordinary layman would call that person (or body of persons) Sovereign in a State who is obeyed
because he is acknowledged to stand at the top, whose will must be expected to prevail, who can
get his own way, and make others go his, because such is the practice of the country.
Etymologically the word of course means merely superiority, and familiar usage applies it in
monarchies to the monarch, because he stands first in the State, be his real power great or small.”
James Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence 504–05 (1901).
26) Tribunal
(15c)
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

1. A court of justice or other adjudicatory body.

2. The seat, bench, or place where a judge sits.
27) Duty
(13c)
1. A legal obligation that is owed or due to another and that needs to be satisfied; that which one
is bound to do, and for which somebody else has a corresponding right.
“There is a duty if the court says there is a duty; the law, like the Constitution, is what we make
it. Duty is only a word with which we state our conclusion that there is or is not to be liability; it
necessarily begs the essential question… [M]any factors interplay: the hand of history, our ideas
of morals and justice, the convenience of administration of the rule, and our social ideas as to
where loss should fall.” William L. Prosser, Palsgraf Revisited, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1, 15
(1953).“A classic English definition [of duty] from the late nineteenth century holds that, when
circumstances place one individual in such a position with regard to another that thinking
persons of ordinary sense would recognize the danger of injury to the other if ordinary skill and
care were not used, a duty arises to use ordinary skill and care to avoid the injury. A much
quoted American judicial definition of duty emphasizes its relational aspects, with a focus on the
foreseeability of risk to those ‘within the range of apprehension.’ At about the same time, one of
the most creative of American law teachers defined duty as a complex of factors, including
administrative, economic, and moral ones, to be applied by judges in their analyses of the legal
strength of personal injury cases.” Marshall S. Shapo, The Duty to Act xi–xii (1977).“While
courts frequently say that establishing ‘duty’ is the first prerequisite in an individual tort case,
courts commonly go on to say that there is a ‘general duty’ to ‘exercise reasonable care,’ to
avoid subjecting others to ‘an unreasonable risk of harm,’ or to comply with the ‘legal standard
of reasonable conduct.’ Though cast in the language of duty, these formulations merely give the
expression to the point that negligence is the standard of liability.” Restatement (Third) of Torts
§ 6 cmt. a (Discussion Draft 1999).
2. Any action, performance, task, or observance owed by a person in an official or fiduciary
capacity.
3. DUTY OF CARE.
4. A tax imposed on a commodity or transaction, esp. on imports; IMPOST. • A duty in this
sense is imposed on things, not persons.
5. Service in a branch of the armed forces; military service.
28) Endow
vb. (14c)
1. To give money or property to, esp. as a source of continuing or permanent income.
2. Hist. To provide (a woman) with a dower.
29) Autonomy
n. (17c)
Elizaveta Shegay
Definitions to article “Importance of the Seat of Arbitration in International Arbitration” (A. Belohlavek)

1. The right of self-government.

2. A self-governing country.
3. An individual's capacity for self-determination. — autonomous (aw-tahn-ə-məs), adj.
30) Autonomy of the parties = freedom of contract
(1879)
The doctrine that people have the right to enter into binding private agreements with others; a
judicial concept that contracts are based on mutual agreement and free choice, and thus should
not be hampered by undue external control such as governmental interference. • This is the
principle that people are able to fashion their relations by private agreements, esp. as opposed to
the assigned roles of the feudal system. As Maine famously said, “[T]he movement of
progressive societies has been a movement from Status to Contract.” Henry Sumner Maine,
Ancient Law 165 (1864). — Also termed liberty of contract; autonomy of the parties.
“Like most shibboleths, that of ‘freedom of contract’ rarely, if ever, received the close
examination which its importance deserved, and even today it is by no means easy to say what
exactly the nineteenth-century judges meant when they used this phrase. At least it may be said
that the idea of freedom of contract embraced two closely connected, but none the less distinct,
concepts. In the first place it indicated that contracts were based on mutual agreement, while in
the second place it emphasized that the creation of a contract was the result of a free choice
unhampered by external control such as government or legislative interference.” P.S. Atiyah, An
Introduction to the Law of Contract 5 (3d ed. 1981).