Various perspectives regarding the effects of the United Nations Convention on contracts for the international sale of goods

Abstract

The 1980 United Nations Con-vention on Contracts for the Inter-national Sale of Goods (CISG) was adopted in order to provide uni-form rules governing the interna-tional sale of goods. As of Novem-ber 2020, UNCITRAL and the UN report that 94 States have adopted the CISG, with Portugal being the latest State to have acceded to the CISG.1 This is an impres-sive number of Contracting States. The CISG applies to contracts for the sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in dif-ferent States, where the States are CISG Contracting States (Arti-cle 1(1)(a)). Moreover, it applies to contracts for the sale of goods when the contracting parties have their places of business in different States and when the rules of pri-vate international law lead to the application of the law of a CISG Contracting State (Article 1(1)(b)). However, at the time of ratifica-tion, the prospective Contracting States are given the possibility of making additional reservations, including one set out in Article 95 CISG, which limits the appli-cation of Article 1(1)(b) of the Convention. Although there are some CISG Contracting States that initially applied the reser-vation but have since withdrawn it,2 there are still a few Contract-ing States, including the United States, where reservations remain.3