The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (the "Convention" or "CISG") is a binding agreement between nations to unify a broad area of commercial law at the international level. The CISG was developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UCITRAL), and was signed in Vienna in 1980. The CISG is sometimes referred to as the Vienna Convention (but is not to be confused with other treaties signed in Vienna). It came into force as a multilateral treaty on 1 January 1988, after being ratified by 11 countries. As of May 2016, it has been ratified by 85 states that account for a significant proportion of world trade, making it one of the most successful international uniform laws. It establishes …show more content…
Among the many significant provisions of the CISG are those addressing the following matters: - Interpretation of the parties' agreement; - The role of practices established between the parties, and of international usages; - The features, duration and revocability of offers; - The manner, timing and effectiveness of acceptances of offers; - The effect of attempts to add or change terms in an acceptance; - Modifications to international sales contracts; - The seller's obligations with respect to the quality of the goods as well as the time and place for delivery; - The place and date for payment; - The buyer's obligations to take delivery, to examine delivered goods, and to give notice of any claimed lack of conformity; - The buyer's remedies for breach of contract by the seller, including rights to demand delivery, to require repair or replacement of non-conforming goods, to avoid the contract, to recover damages, and to reduce the price for non-conforming goods; - The seller's remedies for breach of contract by the buyer, including rights to require the buyer to take delivery and/or pay the price, to avoid the contract, and to recover damages; - Passing of risk in the goods sold; - Anticipatory breach of …show more content…
To achieve its fundamental purpose of providing uniform rules for international sales, the Convention itself requires that it be interpreted with a view to maintaining its international character and uniformity. To that end, special research resources, often consisting of databases available free of charge through the Internet, provide access to materials designed to foster uniform international understanding of the rules of the CISG. These resources, including several developed and maintained by UNCITRAL in the six official languages of the United Nations, allow access to court and arbitral decisions applying the CISG from around the world, the travaux préparatoires of the CISG, and commentary on the Convention by a global community of