An Indispensable Tool for Cross Border Contracts Since the first edition of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Law were released in 1994, they have become an invaluable tool for international lawyers. Written in English, they are designed for international commercial contracts and have been translated into 15 languages. The UNIDROIT Principles contain over 50 solutions to typical contractual questions constituting compromises between civil and common law, or between differing common laws and differing civil laws. Thus the UNIDROIT Principles provide a balanced and neutral set of rules restating an international understanding of global contract law. When parties from different legal backgrounds negotiate contracts it is often wise to consider choosing the UNIDROIT Principles as the contractual soft law regime. In other cases, the UNIDROIT Principles can serve as a checklist and inspire the drafting of a cross-border contract. The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law has endorsed their use "as appropriate, for their intended purposes." It is particularly appropriate to rely on the UNIDROIT Principles when a jurisdiction of one of the parties has roots in the UNIDROIT Principles. A Source of Law for Legislators and Arbitrators Many national legislators have used the UNIDROIT Principles as a source to inspiring their own legislation. For example, in China the UNIDROIT based principle of assessing responsibilities by allocation to the sphere of a party was first introduced in 1999 and reconfirmed in 2017. In arbitration, parties sometimes agree anew to the application of the UNIDROIT Principles to avoid the research of otherwise applicable foreign law. Arbitrators use them to interpret other, more general concepts of law or to overcome deficiencies in a choice of law clause. Article-by-Article Comments of the 2016 Edition The commentary analyses the UNIDROIT Principles article by article from a practical perspective, while also discussing alternative courses of actions, where they apply. The commentary includes the changes made in the 4th edition, 2016 (released in 2017) regarding long-term contracts and the Principles' impact on them. In analysing the UNIDROIT Principles, the author navigates the reader through the system of the 211 principles. A Comparative Legal Perspective Eckart Brodermann takes a comparative legal view at the UNIDROIT Principles. The author is a German practitioner and arbitrator with international training and familiarity with both common and civil law. He studied at the Universities of Paris V, Harvard and Hamburg. He is a member of both the New York and the Hamburg Bar, a Certified Specialist in International Business Law (Germany) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London. He is a Professor of Law at the University of Hamburg and served for five years as an official observer to the shaping of the UNIDROIT Principles 2010 edition as well as being involved in the preparation of the UNIDROIT Model Clauses. He chooses the UNIDROIT Principles regularly in contracts for both his own law firm and on behalf of his clients from civil or common law countries.