Originally from: The Practitioner’s Guide to the CISG - Second Edition

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§ 1.1 Overview

§ 1.1.1 Scope of application of the CISG: Overview of its requirements

The CISG applies to contracts of sale of goods when the parties are located in different states and (a) the two states are CISG Contracting States or (b) when the forum rules of private international law lead to the application of the law of a Contracting State.  Therefore, these are the things you need to look for:

• Whether the transaction is a contract of sale of goods (see infra Article 3).

• Whether the parties to the contract are located in different States (see infra Article 1).

• Whether the Convention applies pursuant to 1(1)(a) or 1(1)(b) (see infra Article 1).

• If the Convention is applicable pursuant to Article 1(1)(b), whether any reservation has been made by the relevant Contracting State (see infra Chapter 7—Reservations—Articles 92-96).

• Whether the parties to the contract effectively derogated from its applicability (see infra Article 6).

• Whether the CISG’s temporal scope has been met (see “Final Provisions” Chapter—Article 100).

Even if the CISG applies to the transaction, the CISG does not govern all aspects of the transaction. Issues like validity or property issues are outside the scope of the CISG (see infra Article 4). The CISG might apply also to issues not expressly “governed” by the CISG (see “General Provisions” Chapter—Article 7).

As indicated, some of the issues listed above will be addressed in this chapter. For all others, refer to the suggested sections.