Understanding the CISG

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.