Issues Relating to the Applicability of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)

Abstract:     
The posting contains drafts excerpts from a forthcoming new (4th) edition of John Honnold's treatise Uniform Law for International Sales under the 1980 United Nations Convention. The posting is comprised of new materials proposed to be inserted in the discussion of certain rules governing the applicability of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Those rules are found in Articles 1, 3 and 4 of the CISG, discussed in §§ 39-48 and 57-70 of Professor Honnold's treatise. The issues addressed in the excerpts include: the extent to which the Convention's rules of applicability respect distinctions between legally-distinct entities; the treatment of services employed in producing goods in determining, pursuant to CISG Article 3(2), whether a contract is predominantly a service transaction; whether the Convention governs claims asserted by a buyer against parties other than the buyer's direct seller, such as manufacturers and other remote distributors of the goods; and the extent to which the CISG governs the question of who bears the burden of proving the elements of its provisions.

Keywords: Sales, International Sales, Sales Convention, United Nations Sales Convention, CISG, Applicability of CISG, Mixed Goods/Services Contracts, Burden of Proof, Manufacturers, Warranties

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