Contract Law In Contemporary International Commerce

Although the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is one of the most successful international conventions to date, it remains the case that those involved in the international sale of goods must refer to a multitude of laws. Indeed the CISG itself does not cover all issues relating to international sales contracts, so it must necessarily be supplemented by domestic law. Global Sales and Contract Law provides a truly comparative analysis of domestic laws in over sixty countries so as to deliver a global view of domestic and international sales law. The book reports on the real practice of sales law, taking into account present day problems. Complex questions on the obligations under a sales contract, the ways in which these are established, as well as the remedies following the breach of obligations, are all discussed. By addressing regional uniform projects, like OHADA, and comparing differences in domestic legal approach where the CISG would not apply, the work goes beyond existing commentaries which tend to focus only on the CISG. The analysis has been based on an unprecedented survey drawn from the world's top fifty companies as well as international traders, lawyers advising international traders, arbitral institutions, arbitrators, and law schools. This work encompasses all aspects of a sale of goods transaction and takes a wide view of sale by including general contract law. The book gives practitioners invaluable insight into judicial trends and possible solutions in different legal systems, whether preparing for litigation or drafting an international contract. Global Sales and Contract Law is the most comprehensive and thorough compilation of legal analysis in the field of the sale of goods and is a reliable source for any practitioner dealing in international commerce.

This text is an invaluable tool for students on undergraduate and postgraduate management programmes containing elements of general and international business law. The legal dimension in managerial decisions is shown, and on-line resources provide current material to support the text.

This proceedings volume combines chapters derived from papers presented at the 4th and 5th Annual Conferences on the Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform. This ongoing research project brings together scholars from all over the world at an annual international conference in London. The book focusses on technology in commercial contract law as well as on sustainability in commercial contracts. The latter theme was inspired by the United Nations' climate conference that was to take place in Glasgow in the United Kingdom that same year. The book combines topical current issues in commercial contract law and practice organized in three parts. The first part contains contributions to the area of law and technology. The second part of the book expands on aspects of sustainability understood as environmental reasonableness in the context of commercial contracts. The third part includes several chapters on the topics of supervening events and contractual ethics. This book is therefore part of a coherent line of contributions to the furthering of modern contract theory. The choice of topics is closely following current issues of legal policy and contract practice.

This thorough and detailed Research Handbook explores the complexity of governance of sales contracts in the modern world. It examines many topical aspects of sales law and practice, with considerable emphasis being placed on the diversity of: commercial and transactional contexts; in which sales contracts are made and performed, including digital technologies, long-term contracts and global supply chains and sources governing such contracts, particularly those emanating from commercial players, such as standard form contracts, trade usages and trade terms. Written by leading experts from an international and comparative perspective, the Research Handbook is relevant to anyone with an interest in commercial sales and contract law.

The contributors to this volume, well-known experts from Europe and the US, analyze various issues relating to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). With its current global network of 58 Contracting States, the CISG is widely applied in practice today. To make the growing case law on this subject matter readily accessible, the UNCITRAL Secretariat in Vienna has set up a reporting system for national court decisions relating to the CISG. The extensive documentation already collected there and elsewhere will surely have a lasting impact on the ongoing scholarly debate on this topic. The present book is intended to contribute to this debate by addressing controversial issues relating to the interpretation and application of some important provisions of the new sales law. In addition, several authors also deal with the development of international principles of contract law, such as the Principles of European Contract Law, the UNIDROIT Principles and the lex mercatoria . In view of the increasing number of such rules, a discussion of the CISG would be incomplete without taking account of the relationship of the Convention to these principles as well.

An oft-repeated assertion within contract law scholarship and cases is that a good contract law (or a good commercial contract law) will meet the needs and expectations of commercial contractors. Despite the prevalence of this statement, relatively little attention has been paid to why this should be the aim of contract law, how these 'commercial expectations' are identified and given substance, and what precise legal techniques might be adopted by courts to support the practices and expectations of business people. This book explores these neglected issues within contract law. It examines the idea of commercial expectation, identifying what expectations commercial contractors may have about the law and their business relationships (using empirical studies of contracting behaviour), and assesses the extent to which current contract law reflects these expectations. It considers whether supporting commercial expectations is a justifiable aim of the law according to three well-established theoretical approaches to contractual obligations: rights-based explanations, efficiency-based (or economic) explanations and the relational contract critique of the classical law. It explores the specific challenges presented to contract law by modern commercial relationships and the ways in which the general rules of contract law could be designed and applied in order to meet these challenges. Ultimately the book seeks to move contract law beyond a simple dichotomy between contextualist and formalist legal reasoning, to a more nuanced and responsive legal approach to the regulation of commercial agreements.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Providing a concise overview of the basic doctrines underlying the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), Clayton Gillette explores their ambiguities and thus considers the extent to which uniform international commercial law is possible, as well as appraising the extent to which the doctrines in the UN Convention reflect those that commercial parties would prefer. With its compelling combination of doctrine and theory, this book makes an ideal companion for students and legal scholars alike. Key features include: • Concise and compact overview of the CISG • Includes contemporary developments • Provides a theoretical basis for evaluating international sales law • Considers perspectives of economic analysis of law.