Law Commons^™

The Teetotalling Winebibber: A Case Study For The International Sale Of Goods, Stephen M. Shrewsbury

Pace International Law Review

Case studies are very effective pedagogical tools available to business and legal educators. Hypothetical fact patterns provide instructors an additional advantage of being able to modify facts to target particular learning goals for students. This article presents a substantial case study and teaching notes for a hypothetical international sale of goods transaction. The facts presented will necessitate student research and examination of a wide range of legal issues related to contract negotiation and interpretation, shipping and related difficulties that might arise during contract execution, and issues related to disputes over the quality of goods. Questions in the study require students …

The Roots And Fruits Of Good Faith In Domestic Court Practice, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

Good faith—most lawyers have an opinion on these two words. While the notion of good faith may play specific roles at domestic and regional levels, it remains an elusive siren at the international level. The concept was subject to controversy at the birth of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and has been debated by scholars ever since. Considering that the Convention has now been in force for over thirty years, it is agreed that time is ripe for “a call to arms for further research into a uniform standard of good …

Cisg Article 79: Exemption Of Performance, And Adaptation Of Contract Through Interpretation Of Reasonableness－Full Of Sound And Fury, But Signifying Something, Yasutoshi Ishida

Pace International Law Review

Article 79 of the CISG provides that “[a] party is not liable for a failure to perform any of his obligations” if the party has encountered a certain impediment defined therein. It was once depicted as “the Convention’s least successful part of the half-century of work.” It has been thirty years since the CISG took effect. However, the interpretation of Article 79 is as old and unsuccessful as ever. For one thing, it has long been interpreted against our intuition, not to exempt a party from specific performance claims. For another, the controversy has long continued unsettled over whether a …

Penalty Clauses – What Has Changed?, Bruno Zeller

Pace International Law Review

Building on two seminal cases that consider the character of penalty clauses, Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd from Australia and Cavendish Square Holding BV v. Talal El Makdessi from England, this Article sheds a new light on the treatment of fixed sums and argues that the view on whether penalty clauses are governed by the CISG requires new considerations. Importantly, this Article demonstrates a two-step approach to the analysis of penalty clauses: 1) whether the sum in question is penal in nature, and 2) if so, whether the CISG determines the fate of the penalty clause …

Good Faith – The Gordian Knot Of International Commerce, Bruno Zeller, Camilla Baasch Andersen

Pace International Law Review

This paper argues that good faith cannot be defined and furthermore that there is no need to define good faith as it takes on meaning when applied to facts. Hence an explanation or application of good faith is defined by its function namely to enforce the expected performance of both parties. It is further argued that the function of good faith will determine which fact pattern has to be found by a court in order to determine the expected performance of the contractual parties. It follows that good faith is the legal concept which allows courts to do justice and …

Contractual Excuse Under The Cisg: Impediment, Hardship, And The Excuse Doctrines, Larry A. Dimatteo

Pace International Law Review

This article will examine the law of excuse as espoused in the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). It will examine the relevant case law applying the doctrine of impediment found in CISG Article 79. The question posed in this analysis is whether the word “impediment” relates only to the occurrences of force majeure, impossibility and frustration of purpose events or if it also includes changed circumstances, impracticability and hardship events. For purposes of simplicity, the first set of excuse or exemption doctrines will be analyzed under the heading of “impossibility” and the second set will …

The Conformity Of The Goods To The Contract In International Sales, Villy De Luca

Pace International Law Review

The present article aims to provide a general overview on the issue of conformity of the goods to the contract as regulated by Article 35 of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (“CISG”).

The analysis will focus on Article 35 CISG and, after having retraced the history that led to the current formulation of the provision, will concentrate on the implications following the adoption of a “unitary” notion of conformity. The evaluation will proceed focusing on the single express and implied conformity obligations covered, respectively, in the first and second paragraphs of Article 35 CISG.

The …

Is The Albert H Kritzer Database Telling Us More Than We Know?, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

This article is the first in a series of articles attempting to provide a geographical and temporal overview of the application practice of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). In this first article, the success of CISG is explored. The article develops the idea of using the Albert H. Kritzer Database to achieve an overview of the success of the Convention in practice. It is argued that the success of the Convention is useful to measure by its uniformity in practice, and therefore a set of criteria relating to the Convention’s application by …

Apathy Vis-À-Vis The Un Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods (Cisg) In The Uk And Two Proposed Strategies For Cisg's Incorporation In The Uk Legal Order, Katerina Georgiadou

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The 1980 UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG or Convention) is said to have resulted out of a largely global scholarly jurisconsultorium, as it was drawn up in cooperation between scholars from around the globe. In essence, this article will examine the lack of interest and reluctance on behalf of the United Kingdom (UK) to ratify the CISG by considering the initial reactions of the UK towards the CISG, the UK’s isolationist attitude, the fact that CISG is not a legislative priority in the UK, and the objection to ratification based on unreasonable grounds. Furthermore, …

Uk’S Ratification Of The Cisg – An Old Debate Or A New Hope For The Economy Of The Uk On Its Way Out Of The Recession: The Potential Impact Of The Cisg On The Uk’S Sme, Silvia E. Nikolova

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The main hypothesis of this article is that the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods has the potential to act as a catalyst for the economy of the UK on its way out of the recession and, therefore, should be ratified, as it will strongly affect the development of the SME sector. This hypothesis will be questioned and evaluated throughout the article.

In Part II of the article, the importance of the SMEs for the current economy of the UK will be assessed. Together with Part I, Part II will form the prism through which the remainder of …

Albert Kritzer: Pioneer Of Open Access To International Private Law, Marie Stefanini Newman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This essay explores the enormous contributions that Professor Albert H. Kritzer has made to the field of international commercial law through the creation of a unique and powerful database that explicates the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (ClSG).