Understanding The Cisg In Europe

More than 40 countries, accounting for two-thirds of all world trade, have ratified the Convention on Contracts For The International Sale of Goods (CISG). Through a comparison and contrast with domestic law, The authors explain the CISG in terms familiar to European jurists. Because the CISG treaty demands an international interpretation, The authors draw heavily upon a broad base of CISG decisions, arbitral awards and doctrine from around the world. Concrete examples are provided throughout. The English language text will help European jurists to better communicate about CISG problems across language barriers. Those in academia will also appreciate the sources drawn upon And The comparative approach of this work.

A guide to the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

The 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) regulates the rights of buyers and sellers in international sales. The Convention is the first sales law treaty to win acceptance on a worldwide scale, and the impressive list of nearly one hundred Contracting States accounts for more than three-fourths of all world trade. The importance of the CISG in the international arena is underlined by thousands of reported decisions where the CISG has been held to apply, thus evidencing the conduct of countless international traders who – by default or by express choice – regularly subject their sales contracts to the Convention regime. The CISG treaty demands an international interpretation, and this extensively updated Sixth Edition draws upon the full range of primary as well as secondary sources of CISG law, including clear and concise reports of the latest decisions, arbitral awards and scholarly opinion. Numerous concrete examples are provided throughout. With this book as their guide, lawyers and students who need to understand international sales law will confidently navigate key topic areas such as these: determining when the CISG applies; freedom of contract, opting out; interpretation of CISG treaty and CISG contracts; formation, validity, defenses to enforcement; obligations of the parties; remedies for breach; liability exemptions, hardship; and disclaimers, agreed remedies.

"... there is a lack of a clear and simple exposition of the CISG for students and practitioners. That is the role of the current book, which it fills admirably. All of the issues that have been raised in the cases and the literature are considered, but without excessive detail. This is a book that will do much to make the CISG an easily understandable text for all users, student and pracitioner alike." Preface by Professor Eric E. Bergsten

The CISG is now being applied extensively both by international arbitral tribunals and by domestic courts of its more than 70 contracting states. But do they also apply it in the same manner? Although Article 7 of the CISG underscores "the need to promote uniformity in its application", it gives little guidance as to how to achieve this goal. Each judge and arbitrator is influenced by the legal methodology of his home jurisdiction. Therefore it is somewhat of a paradox that whilst the number of contracting states is constantly increasing so too is the threat of variation in application. In this book the most important issues of the CISG's methodology are analysed by leading experts from five continents. Whereas some authors provide a thorough analysis of the central topics of interpretation, others enter almost uncharted territories.

EU Private Law and the CISG examines selected EU directives in the field of private law and their effects on the national private law systems of several EU Member States and discusses certain specific concepts of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in light of the CISG’s recent fortieth anniversary. The most prominent influence of EU law on national private law systems is in the area of the law of obligations, thus the book focuses on several EU private law directives that cover the issues belonging to contract and tort law, as interpreted in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. EU private law concepts need to be interpreted autonomously and uniformly rather than through the lens of national private law systems. The same is true for the CISG which has not only been one of the most successful instruments of the international trade law unification but had also influenced both the EU private law and domestic laws. In Part I, focused on the EU private law and its effects for national laws, chapters examine the recent Digital Content and Services Directive and its likely impact on the contract law of the UK and Ireland, the role aggressive commercial practices play in EU banking and credit legislation, the applicability of the EU private international law rules to collective redress, the unfair contract terms regime of the Late Payment Directive and its transposition into Croatian law, the implementation of the Commercial Agency Directive in Denmark, Estonia and Germany, and disgorgement of profits as remedy provided in the Trade Secrets Directive. In Part II, dealing with selected CISG issues, chapters discuss the autonomous interpretation of CISG’s concept of sale by auction and its notion of intellectual property, as well as the CISG’s principle of freedom of form and the possibility for reservations with the effect of its exclusion. The book will be of interest to legal scholars in the field of EU private law and international trade law, as well as to the students, practitioners, members of law reform bodies, and civil servants in Europe, and beyond.

The book provides rule-by-rule commentaries on European contract law (general contract law, consumer contract law, the law of sale and related services), dealing with its modern manifestations as well as its historical and comparative foundations. After the collapse of the European Commission's plans to codify European contract law it is timely to reflect on what has been achieved over the past three to four decades, and for an assessment of the current situation. In particular, the production of a bewildering number of reference texts has contributed to a complex picture of European contract laws rather than a European contract law. The present book adopts a broad perspective and an integrative approach. All relevant reference texts (from the CISG to the Draft Common European Sales Law) are critically examined and compared with each other. As far as the acquis commun (ie the traditional private law as laid down in the national codifications) is concerned, the Principles of European Contract Law have been chosen as a point of departure. The rules contained in that document have, however, been complemented with some chapters, sections, and individual provisions drawn from other sources, primarily in order to account for the quickly growing acquis communautaire in the field of consumer contract law. In addition, the book ties the discussion concerning the reference texts back to the pertinent historical and comparative background; and it thus investigates whether, and to what extent, these texts can be taken to be genuinely European in nature, ie to constitute a manifestation of a common core of European contract law. Where this is not the case, the question is asked whether, and for what reasons, they should be seen as points of departure for the further development of European contract law.