Legal Diversity and The Cape Town Convention

The Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (2001) ("Convention") purports to harmonize the law of secured interests in international transactions dealing with high value mobile equipment.^[1] The importance of the Convention does not only stem from the fact that it deals with high value mobile equipment^[2]; it also creates universal substantive laws to govern transactions relating to them.

The Convention defines an international interest as one that is: granted by the chargor under a security agreement; vested in a person who is the conditional seller under a title reservation agreement; or vested in a person who is the lessor under a leasing agreement. According to paragraph (d) of the Article 2 of the Convention, it is the applicable law which determines whether an interest falls under one of the international interest definitions. Consequently, it is possible to state that available remedies vary according to the definition and