Since 1960s, international commercial law, as a university course, has been offered in some foreign universities for many years. [1] In China, with the continuous expansion of foreign-related work in recent years, not only some colleges and universities have set up courses in international commercial law, but what is particularly striking is that international commercial law has become an important part of many industries and departments, which has attracted widespread attention. At the same time, the term "international commercial law" is frequently used in various occasions, and books with the title of international commercial law are also very common. [2] Therefore, college students, students and people from all walks of life who are interested in international commercial law have raised the following questions: What is international commercial law? How to understand the connotation and extension of the concept of international commercial law? Is international commercial law an independent legal department like international law, international economic law or civil law and economic law? The author believes that the emergence of these problems reflects the deepening of China's opening to the outside world and constantly puts forward new topics and new requirements for legal research. It is our legal researchers' responsibility to correctly understand and grasp these new topics and promote and prosper the legal research in China. In view of this, the author intends to make a preliminary discussion on the concept of international commercial law in theory. If there is anything wrong, please criticize and correct me. With regard to the study of the concept of international commercial law, the author comprehensively investigates the explanations of the concept of international commercial law by scholars at home and abroad in various works. The author thinks that the concept of international commercial law can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense, which are described below respectively. 1. In a broad sense, international commercial law is the sum of various legal norms regulating international commercial relations, and it is an independent legal department. First, according to the general theory of law, the main criterion for dividing legal departments is the social relations adjusted by legal norms, and all legal norms that adjust similar social relations constitute an independent legal department. [3] International commercial law is an independent legal department that regulates international commercial relations as a specific social relationship. The so-called international commercial relationship refers to a certain commercial relationship, whether it is an individual, a legal person, a national government or an international organization, as long as the parties involved in this commercial relationship belong to two or more different countries or international organizations, or the commercial issues involved transcend the boundaries of a country, this relationship can be called international commercial relationship. The legal norms used to regulate all these international commercial relations belong to the category of international commercial law. Specifically, it should include international public law, international economic law, international business practices or conflicts of laws, international business conventions or treaties, and international norms related to business relations in domestic commercial law voluntarily accepted by the parties. In addition to the social relations of legal adjustment as the basis and main standard, the similarities and differences of legal adjustment determined by the nature of legal norms are also important supplementary standards for the division of legal departments. For an obvious example, criminal law, as an independent legal department, has never caused controversy. However, criminal law obviously does not adjust the same kind of social relations, but adjusts various social relations destroyed by crimes, involving almost all legal departments. However, its adjustment method is a single means of punishment. This is an adjustment method that other legal departments do not have. Similarly, the adjustment methods of international commercial law based on the normative nature of international commercial law are also diverse, which are obviously different from other legal departments. The adjustment methods of international commercial law include negotiation and mediation, arbitration and litigation, domestic law and international law. Therefore, from the perspective of legal adjustment methods, it can also be explained that international commercial law is an independent legal department. When discussing international commercial law, it is necessary to explain the word "commercial" in international commercial law. The word "business" is an important idiom in international trade. Generally speaking, international organizations or countries should interpret the term "commercial" as broadly as possible. For example, according to the comments made by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the word "commercial" when drafting the Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration [4], relationships of a commercial nature include but are not limited to the following transactions: any trade transaction that provides or exchanges goods or services; Sales agreement, business representative or agent; Security agent; Lease; Consultation; Design; Permission; Investment; Financing; Banking; Insurance; Mining agreements or concessions; Joint venture or other forms or commercial cooperation; Air, sea, rail or road transportation of passengers and goods. The Code of International Commercial Arbitration and Mediation in California, USA, modeled on the Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, lists 18 matters that belong to commercial relations: (1) transactions that provide or exchange goods or services; (2) sales agreement; (3) Business representatives or agents; (4) Mining agreements or concessions; (5) Joint ventures or other forms of industrial and commercial cooperation; (6) Air, sea, railway or road transportation of passengers and goods; (7) architecture; (8) insurance; (9) permission; (10) security agent; (1 1) lease; (12) consultation; (13) project; ( 14); (15) bank; (16) information or technology transfer; (17) Intellectual property or industrial property, including trademark right, patent right, copyright and software program right; (18) professional services. [5] According to the concept of "commercial" mentioned in the commercial reservation statement made when China joined the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in new york in 1958, it includes goods sale, property lease, project contracting, processing contracting, technology transfer, joint venture, cooperative operation, resource exploration and development, insurance, credit, labor service, agency and consulting services. [6] Therefore, China's interpretation of the word "business" is also relatively broad. International commercial law is a law that regulates the activities of various commercial subjects in the above-mentioned international "commercial" fields. Second, judging from the emergence of international commercial law, international commercial law appeared as an independent legal department from the beginning. At first, the commercial relationship it adjusted was not the commercial relationship between domestic businessmen in a country, but the international commercial relationship between businessmen in different countries and across borders. International commercial law came into being and developed with the emergence and development of commodity economy. The formation of international commercial law comes from practice, and its systematization process is not due to the spread of national legislation or scholars, but to the efforts of its users and promoters. The initial form of international commercial law is merchant customary law, which appeared in Venice in the 1 1 century, and then gradually extended to Spain, France, Germany and Britain, and even Nordic countries and North Africa with the development of maritime trade. This kind of international commercial law, which takes businessmen (mainly businessmen who engage in trade between two or more countries and must transport by ship) as the adjustment object, belongs to the customary law of businessmen and is a legal norm formed through trading practices, habits and customs with the autonomy of the parties as the highest principle. Its contents mainly include: contract for the sale of goods, joint venture company, maritime transportation and insurance, draft, bankruptcy procedure and other standard clauses. This kind of merchant customary law is the law and business practice used by businessmen in ports or markets all over Europe to adjust their business transactions. Compared with the local laws of the feudal dynasty at that time, it has the following characteristics: (1) it is an international commercial law, which is generally applicable to merchants engaged in commodity trading in various countries; (2) Its interpretation and application are not run by full-time judges in general courts, but by courts organized by businessmen themselves, which are similar in nature to international commercial arbitration or mediation; (3) The procedure is relatively simple and fast, and is not limited to molding; (4) Emphasize the principle of fairness and reasonableness in handling cases. [7]

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