Life Member Professor Müller was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall from 2016-2017 and was inspired to write Swiss Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration during his time in Cambridge.

Despite the existence of soft law instruments specifically created for international commercial contracts, most notably the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2016, national laws continue to dominate cross-border transactions. In this regard, international commercial contracts are frequently governed by Swiss law, which is considered to be the most appealing law after English law. In fact, along with English law, Swiss law is, on average, three times more attractive to commercial parties than any other law. Recent statistics released by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) confirm this, indicating that Swiss law has consistently been the second or third most popular law chosen to govern the parties’ contract.

Given the popularity of Swiss law as a law governing the parties’ contract, in particular, in proceedings in English involving non-Swiss parties, the idea behind the book on Swiss Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration is to make Swiss contract law more accessible to English speaking commercial actors and practitioners who are not familiar with Swiss contract law. The book offers a meticulous exploration of the key specific contracts under Swiss law which one finds in international commerce, ranging from the contract of sale to settlement agreements. Additionally, it presents a deep dive into the Swiss law of obligations, touching on crucial areas such as contract formation, interpretation, and breach.

Professor Müller reflects on his time at Clare Hall:

The calm and inspiring working environment of Ashby Library was seminal for this book. Indeed, it was during my year at Clare Hall that I developed the project of writing a book which explains Swiss contract law to Common Law arbitration practitioners

Professor Christoph Müller is currently Full Professor at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland teaching contract law, tort law, contract drafting and comparative private law.