Law merchant

law merchant   n.   pl. laws merchant A body of principles and regulations applied to commercial transactions and deriving from the established customs of merchants and traders rather than the jurisprudence of a particular nation or state.

Main Entry: law merchant
Function: noun
: the commercial rules developed under English common law that influenced modern commercial law and that are referred to as supplementing rules set down in the Uniform Commercial Code and in state codes

law merchant

during the Middle Ages, the body of customary rules and principles relating to merchants and mercantile transactions and adopted by traders themselves for the purpose of regulating their dealings. Initially, it was administered for the most part in special quasi-judicial courts, such as those of the guilds in Italy and, later, regularly constituted piepoudre courts in England (see piepoudre court).

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