Ebook: UN Law on International Sales: The UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods

This book is dedicated to Professor Schlechtriem and his tremendous life time work on the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and all past, present, and future participants of the Willem C Vis Moot for whom hopefully the book will be of some use. To have been asked to adopt Professor Peter Schlechtriem’s German text book Internationales UN-Kaufrecht (4 ed, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2007) for the English speaking student, academic, and practitioner and to work with Professor Schlechtriem on this edition has been a great honour. Unfortunately this book has been longer in the making than originally planned and more unfortunately still was not finished in time for Professor Schlechtriem to see its publishing. The aims of this book are more modest than other compendious treatments of the CISG. The main aim above all others has been to facilitate discussion on the use and application of the provisions of the CISG. As the CISG itself was the outcome of nearly a decade of debate between nations polarised in ideology, the importance of continuing discussion cannot be understated. This is especially true in regard to common law countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand which have all ratified the CISG many years ago but where its use and jurisprudence are rather underdeveloped.

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This book describes and analyses the rules and provisions of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods of 1980. Since its coming into force in 1988, thousands of cases have been decided in more than 70 states that have enacted the Convention. The CISG has become the subject of courses and classes in International and Commercial Law in the curricula of law schools and other institutions throughout the world. The authors have a long experience in teaching these subject matters; Professor Peter Schlechtriem was also involved in the elaboration and drafting of the Convention in 1980. They explain the details of the CISG's text, report the essence of the scholarly discussions of its issues, and, in particular, present numerous cases decided by courts and arbitration tribunals both as illustrations of problems arising under the CISG and as case law interpreting the Convention. The book is mainly intended to be used in teaching, but it can also help practitioners to understand the structure and basic solutions of sales law issues encoded in the CISG.