As garantias bancárias autônomas no direito internacional

Abstract

With the increase of the international transactions in the period after Second World War and with the globalization of economies, the international commerce players started to make more frequently use of the banking guarantees. The commercial practice demanded net and safe guarantees and ended up creating a modality of guarantee in which the obligation entailed between the bank and the beneficiary is autonomous in relation to the other obligations existing between the debtor (applicant) and the beneficiary and the one existing between the applicant and the bank. The autonomous banking guarantee has legal nature of contract sui generis, as it arises from the legal principles of autonomy of the will of the parties and freedom to contract, being also possible to characterize it as an atypical guarantee. This study presents an overview of the autonomous banking guarantees, as it is presented in the contemporary commercial practice and analyses the obligation relations involved in the issuance, from simple to complex structures. In the absence of specific legislation in the majority of the countries, the jurisprudence plays a very important role to the comprehension and study of these guarantees. Despite the ruling efforts of the International Chamber of Commerce and Unidroit to regulate the subject, it is the tribunals that will limit the use and applicability of the banking guarantees, as well as the autonomy in case of manifest abuse and fraud