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

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The Nature of CISG Case Law: Still the Key to Uniformity with Many Persuasive Examples for Counsel to Draw from

In the introduction to the first edition, we illustrated how the CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) had fostered a plethora of scholarship on the goal of uniformity and the need to interpret it consistently.   One suggested avenue for this was – and still is - the use of a so-called “global jurisconsultorium.”  This concept describes the sharing of scholarly sources as well as case law among all CISG states, requiring judges and arbitrators to look at what others have done in different states in similar situations. In other words, global jurisconsultorium requires the sources of trade law in dispute resolution to be as diverse and international as the global financial markets on which transnational commerce takes place.

In essence, the basis of global jurisconsultorium is found in Article 7(1), with the same words that underscore the goal of uniform application, namely that in interpreting the Convention regard must be given to its “international character” and the “need to promote uniformity.”