The excursus made in this book was meant to determine the relationship between an international contract and the sources that regulate it. Even if the parties have not thought of any governing law when drafting the contract; even if they have intended expressly to avoid a certain governing law; even if they have chosen a certain set of transnational rules to govern their transaction; even if they have made use of model contracts that are meant to be used in a variety of jurisdictions – the contract may nevertheless be subject to the mandatory rules, the overriding mandatory rules or the ordre public of state laws that the parties had not taken into consideration or had intended to avoid. Moreover, the contract will be interpreted and construed on the basis of the legal tradition of the applicable law, thus attaching different legal effects to the same wording, depending on the applicable law.