Presented herewith are the Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure. Appended to the Principles are the Rules of Transnational Civil Procedure, which are the Reporters' model implementation of the Principles, which may be considered for adoption in various legal systems.

There are, understandably, skeptics who think the idea premature at best that there can be “universal” procedural rules, and others who, though sympathetic to the idea, have reservations about the present execution of the concept. These reservations are at two levels. First, there is doubt that it is feasible to overcome fundamental differences between common-law and civil-law systems and, among common-law systems, to cope with the peculiarities of theU.S. system.We think, however, that the reservations based on the civil-law/common-law distinction reflect undue anxiety. The U.S. system is unique among common-law systems in having both broad discovery and jury trial. Thus, a second-level reservation is that, if such a project is feasible, it is not feasible if it corresponded in any substantial way to characteristic U.S. procedure.

We conclude that a system of procedure acceptable generally throughout the world could not require jury trial and would require much more limited discovery than is typical in the United States.