Part 1 showed that international contracts are often written on the basis of common law-inspired models and do not regard the applicable law as a guide to the drafting. Before turning to how the various national laws may affect the interpretation and application of an international contract (which will be the subject of Part 3), some methodological questions must be addressed. The circumstance that international contracts are drafted without taking into particular consideration the requirements and assumptions of any particular contract law may seem hard to reconcile with the necessity of interpreting and applying international contracts in accordance with a particular law.

Taking contract practice as a starting point, the observer could be tempted to question whether an international contract shall be subject to a law that was not considered during the drafting. However, when seeking solutions that adequately cater to the peculiarities of international contract drafting, it is necessary to bear in mind their feasibility and effectiveness. Does the drafting constitute a sufficiently clear basis for selecting the governing law? Are harmonised sources available on a transnational level and capable of fully regulating the interpretation and application of contracts, thus making national contract laws redundant?

In Chapter 3, Giuditta Cordero-Moss analyses the implications that the style of contract drafting may have when choosing the governing law. Chapter 3 verifies to what extent generally acknowledged rules, trade usages or transnational restatements of principles may contribute to overcoming the tension between the style of the contract and the law governing it.