The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG; the Vienna Convention) is a treaty that is a uniform international sales law. As of December 2012, it had been ratified by 78 countries that account for a significant proportion of world trade, making it one of the most successful international uniform laws. Benin was the most recent state to ratify the Convention.
The CISG was developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), 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.
The CISG allows exporters to avoid choice of law issues, as the CISG offers "accepted substantive rules on which contracting parties, courts, and arbitrators may rely". Unless excluded by the express terms of a contract, the CISG is deemed to be incorporated into (and supplant) any otherwise applicable domestic law(s) with respect to a transaction in goods between parties from different Contracting States.
The CISG has been regarded as a success for UNCITRAL, as the Convention has been accepted by states from "every geographical region, every stage of economic development and every major legal, social and economic system". Countries that have ratified the CISG are referred to within the treaty as “Contracting States”. Of the uniform law conventions, the CISG has been described as having "the greatest influence on the law of worldwide trans-border commerce". It has been described as a great legislative achievement, and the "most successful international document so far" in unified international sales law, in part due to its flexibility in allowing Contracting States the option of taking exception to certain specified articles. This flexibility was instrumental in convincing states with disparate legal traditions to subscribe to an otherwise uniform code. A number of countries that have signed the CISG have made declarations and reservations as to the treaty's scope, though the vast majority – 55 out of the current 76 Contracting States – have chosen to accede to the Convention without any reservations.
The CISG is the basis of the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna in the week before Easter (and now also in Hong Kong). Teams from law schools around the world take part. The Moot is organised by Pace University, which keeps a definitive source of information on the CISG.
Read more about United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods: Countries That Have Ratified The CISG, Reservations, Major Absentees, Language, Structure, and Content, Commentary On The Convention, Future Directions, Differences With Country Legislation Relating To The Sale of Goods
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