The Governments of the Member States of the Organization
of American States desirous of concluding a convention
on conflict of laws concerning bills of exchange,
promissory notes and invoices, have agreed as follows:
Article 1- Capacity to enter into an obligation by
means of a bill of exchange shall be governed by the law
of the place where the obligation is contracted.
Nevertheless, should the obligation be contracted by a
person who is not capable under the aforesaid law, the
incapacity may not be relied upon in the territory of
any other State Party to this Convention if the
obligation is valid under the law of that State.
Article 2-
The form of the drawing, endorsement,
guaranty, intervention, acceptance or protest of a
bill of exchange shall be governed by the law of the
place in which each one of those acts is performed.
Article 3-
All obligations arising from a bill of
exchange shall be governed by the law of the place
where they are contracted.
Article 4- Should one or more of the obligations
contracted in a bill of exchange be invalid under the
law applicable according to the preceding articles,
this invalidity shall not affect such other
obligations as are valid under the law of the place
where they were contracted.
Article 5- For the purposes of this Convention,
should a bill of exchange not specify the place in
which the obligation was entered into, the obligation
shall be governed by the law of the place where the
bill is payable, and should that place not be
specified by the law of the place where it was drawn.
Article 6- The procedures and time-limits for
acceptance, payment and protest shall be governed by
the law of the place where such acts are or should be
performed.
Article 7-
The law of the State in which the bill
of exchange is payable shall determine the measures to
be taken in case of robbery, theft, forgery, loss,
destruction, or of the instrument deteriorating to the
point of becoming useless.
Article 8- The courts of the State Party in which
the obligation is to be honored or the courts of the
State Party in which the defendant is domiciled, at
the option of the plaintiff, shall have jurisdiction
over disputes arising from the negotiation of a bill
of exchange.
Article 9- The provisions of the foregoing
articles are applicable to promissory notes.
Article 10- The provisions of the foregoing
articles are also applicable to invoices between
States Parties that are considered to be negotiable
instruments under their laws.
Each State Party shall inform the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States whether or not
an invoice is considered to be a negotiable
instrument under its law.
Article 11- The law declared applicable under this
Convention may be refused application in the territory
of a State Party that considers it manifestly contrary
to its public policy ("order public").
Article 12- This Convention shall be open for
signature by the Member States of the Organization of
American States.
Article 13- This Convention is subject to
ratification. The instruments of ratification shall be
deposited with the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States.
Article 14- This Convention shall remain open for
accession by any other State. The instruments of
accession shall be deposited with the General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States.
Article 15-
This Convention shall enter into force
on the thirtieth day following the date of deposit of
the second instrument of ratification.
For each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention
after the deposit of the second instrument of
ratification, the Convention shall enter into force on
the thirtieth day after deposit by such State of its
instrument of ratification or accession.
Article 16- If a State Party has two or more
territorial units in which different systems of law
apply in relation to the matters dealt with in this
Convention, it may, at the time of signature,
ratification or accession, declare that this
Convention shall extend to all its territorial units
or only to one or more of them.
Such declaration may be modified by subsequent
declarations, which shall expressly indicate the
territorial unit or units to which the Convention
applies. Such subsequent declarations shall be
transmitted to the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States, and shall become
effective thirty days after the date of their receipt.
Article 17-
This Convention shall remain in force
indefinitely, but any of the States Parties may
denounce it. The instrument of denunciation shall be
deposited with the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States. After one year from
the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation,
the Convention shall no longer be in effect for the
denouncing State, but shall remain in effect for the
other States Parties.
Article 18- The original instrument of this
Convention, the English, French, Portuguese and
Spanish texts of which are equally authentic, shall be
deposited with the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States. The Secretariat shall
notify the Member States of the Organization of
American States and the States that have acceded to
the Convention of the signatures, deposits of
instruments of ratification, accession, and
denunciation as well as of reservations, if any. It
shall also transmit the information mentioned in the
second paragraph of Article 10 and the declarations
referred to in Article 1 6 of this Convention.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned
Plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized thereto by
their respective Governments, have signed this
Convention.
DONE AT PANAMA CITY, Republic of Panama, this
thirtieth day of January, one thousand nine hundred
and seventy-five.