Also known as: United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods · CISG · Vienna Convention · UN CISG
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An international treaty that supplies uniform rules for contracts for the sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in different contracting states. The convention addresses formation of the contract and the rights and obligations of the seller and buyer but excludes questions of property rights in the goods sold.
A foreign manufacturer ships components to a U.S. buyer under a written agreement. After a dispute arises over quality, the buyer seeks to invoke the convention in state court. Because the treaty is self-executing, the court holds that the convention creates enforceable rights and displaces contrary state contract law.
A California company purchases electronic parts from a Canadian supplier. When defects appear, the buyer sues in state court for breach of contract and warranty. The seller removes the case to federal court, asserting that the convention governs the claims and supplies the basis for federal question jurisdiction.
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The convention applies when the parties have places of business in different contracting states and the contract concerns the sale of goods. It governs formation and the parties' rights and obligations but does not address property effects of the sale.
The convention is self-executing and supplies enforceable rights in domestic courts once ratified. No separate implementing legislation is required.
Because the convention is already self-executing, courts apply it directly. A presidential memorandum is unnecessary to give it domestic effect.
…of the intersection of the travel restriction in Article 49 of its Minors Law 16,618 and the Convention. [^maj-4]: See Art. 32, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, May 23, 1969, 1155 U. N. T. S. 331, 340 (“Recourse may be had to supplementary means of interpretation . . . when the interpretation . . . (a) leaves the meaning…