The UNIDROIT Institute has played a prominent and indispensable role amongst international inter-governmental organizations in the field of the unification of private law. It has thus been a perfect example of the creation of private law beyond national states.

This paper has two parts. The first part focuses upon the analysis of the UNIDROIT institutional structure, its powers as an international organization and the law-making process leading to the adoption of a unifying instrument. Afterwards, it identifies two kinds of these instruments, referred to as legally binding and non-binding. Whilst binding instruments are international conventions, those which are non-binding may have a form of model law, principles or guidelines. It is then emphasised that non-binding instruments have gained more success than binding ones.

The second part of the paper offers an insight into the legal nature, purpose and main ideological tenets of the UNIDROIT Principles for International Commercial Contracts as the most successful non –binding instrument of the unification. The Paper concludes with the statement that there are two main goals of unification: efficiency and humanity.