Modern principles and local deviations in secured transactions laws of Asia: an introductory remark

Abstract One of the significant challenges for a uniform law instrument to be successful is keeping ‘deviations’ that undermine the very purpose of unification or harmonization at a minimum. For model laws, as opposed to uniform law conventions, the challenge arises more (or first) in the implementation phase rather than in the phase of interpreting and applying the instrument. The unification or harmonization of laws on secured transactions or security interests in the 21st century started with the adoption of Unidroit’s Cape Town Convention and the United Nations Convention on Assignment of Receivables in International Trade in 2001, but the more pervasive unification or harmonization took the shape of the adoption of UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Secured Transactions in 2016. Thus, the question is: what essential elements or legal principles shape the coherency of the Model Law; how and to what extent does domestic law reform in various jurisdictions deviate from or accept those principles; and, if there are deviations, why do they occur? This short note introduces the articles in this special issue, which are centred on these questions concerning the use of the Model Law on Secured Transactions in Asian jurisdictions.