Ethical standards in international sales contracts: Can the CISG be used to prevent child labour?

<p>Despite international efforts in recent decades to eliminate it, child labour continues to affect millions of children worldwide. This paper considers whether the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) can be used to prevent child labour. It firstly addresses the conformity requirements in art 35 of the CISG, and asks whether these can be used to require a seller to deliver child labour-free goods, even where this is not explicitly required by the contract. It then considers whether a buyer can recover damages if the seller delivers goods that are tainted by child labour. It examines the difficulties associated with a claim for damages in this context – especially where the only harm suffered by the buyer is to its goodwill or its ‘performance interest’ – and suggests how such damages might be calculated.</p>

Ethical standards in international sales contracts: Can the CISG be used to prevent child labour?

<p>Despite international efforts in recent decades to eliminate it, child labour continues to affect millions of children worldwide. This paper considers whether the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) can be used to prevent child labour. It firstly addresses the conformity requirements in art 35 of the CISG, and asks whether these can be used to require a seller to deliver child labour-free goods, even where this is not explicitly required by the contract. It then considers whether a buyer can recover damages if the seller delivers goods that are tainted by child labour. It examines the difficulties associated with a claim for damages in this context – especially where the only harm suffered by the buyer is to its goodwill or its ‘performance interest’ – and suggests how such damages might be calculated.</p>

CISG Through the Willem C Vis Moot casebook: Seventeen Years of the CISG Evolution Explored Through Annual Global Discussion

<p>This paper explores the evolution of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (referred to throughout the text as the "CISG" or the "Convention") jurisprudence through the Willem C Vis Moot ("Vis Moot") casebook. It analyses the CISG issues raised and explored in the seventeen years of the Willem C Vis Moot and draws out notable trends and key themes. Upon the analysis of the trends and themes which have arisen over the past seventeen years, the dissertation discusses how the Vis Moot problems, as well as the winning memoranda, reflect and encapsulate the evolution and developments in the worldwide application and interpretation of the CISG in those areas. The analysis of the Vis Moot problems is thus used as a tool to consider the worldwide jurisprudential developments on the CISG over the past two decades, and identify both those aspects of the Convention that have benefited from considerable analysis, and where comprehensive jurisprudence has already developed, as well as the "gap" areas where further work is required in order to ensure the CISG evolves alongside technological, social, political and legal developments affecting international sale of goods contracts. The dissertation concludes by drawing out the notable trends illustrated by, and set against the backdrop of, the Vis Moot casebook, and the consequent implications of such trends on the current state ofCISG jurisprudence. In particular, these trends and outcomes are assessed as against the overall spirit of the Convention and its goal of achieving, or seeking to achieve, uniform application of rules on international sale of goods contracts. This assessment seeks to capture how this goal of uniformity has been achieved to-date, and where the upcoming challenges may lie in the coming years. Finally, the paper considers the overall importance and impact of the Vis Moot, as an annual global event with manifold benefits, on the interpretation, promotion and development of the CISG.</p>

CISG Through the Willem C Vis Moot casebook: Seventeen Years of the CISG Evolution Explored Through Annual Global Discussion

<p>This paper explores the evolution of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (referred to throughout the text as the "CISG" or the "Convention") jurisprudence through the Willem C Vis Moot ("Vis Moot") casebook. It analyses the CISG issues raised and explored in the seventeen years of the Willem C Vis Moot and draws out notable trends and key themes. Upon the analysis of the trends and themes which have arisen over the past seventeen years, the dissertation discusses how the Vis Moot problems, as well as the winning memoranda, reflect and encapsulate the evolution and developments in the worldwide application and interpretation of the CISG in those areas. The analysis of the Vis Moot problems is thus used as a tool to consider the worldwide jurisprudential developments on the CISG over the past two decades, and identify both those aspects of the Convention that have benefited from considerable analysis, and where comprehensive jurisprudence has already developed, as well as the "gap" areas where further work is required in order to ensure the CISG evolves alongside technological, social, political and legal developments affecting international sale of goods contracts. The dissertation concludes by drawing out the notable trends illustrated by, and set against the backdrop of, the Vis Moot casebook, and the consequent implications of such trends on the current state ofCISG jurisprudence. In particular, these trends and outcomes are assessed as against the overall spirit of the Convention and its goal of achieving, or seeking to achieve, uniform application of rules on international sale of goods contracts. This assessment seeks to capture how this goal of uniformity has been achieved to-date, and where the upcoming challenges may lie in the coming years. Finally, the paper considers the overall importance and impact of the Vis Moot, as an annual global event with manifold benefits, on the interpretation, promotion and development of the CISG.</p>

To Boldly Go, Part II: Data as the CISG’s Next (but Probably Not Final) Frontier

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) is an international sales law treaty concluded in 1980 and drafted with traditional (physical) goods trade in mind. While a significant body of scholarship has addressed its capacity to govern electronic software transactions, only limited commentary has explored the CISG’s digital application beyond software per se. ‘To Boldly Go, Part I’, this article’s counterpart, developed a specific legal framework for assessing the CISG’s capacity to regulate international trade in non-software data. This article now applies that framework, confirming the CISG is capable of governing non-software data trade, and uses that framework to resolve the currently unsettled question of whether cryptocurrency trade falls within the CISG’s scope. Since non-software data trade is becoming increasingly economically important, this article’s conclusions stand to benefit data traders as well as the practitioners advising them.

ADEQUATE ASSURANCE OF PERFORMANCE UNDER THE UN CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SALE OF GOODS AND THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE

This article compares and contrasts the doctrine of adequate assurance of performance under the US Uniform Commercial Code (the UCC) and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (the CISG). The article argues that, in the context of the CISG, the mechanism of adequate assurance found in the UCC is a faux ami. Despite some similarities, the doctrine of adequate assurance regulated in the CISG is distinct and serves different functions to its UCC counterpart.

THE OBLIGATION OF THE SELLER TO DELIVER THE GOODS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SALE OF GOODS

The seller’s obligations are regulated in the second chapter of the Vienna Convention. Thus, the seller is obliged to deliver the goods, to transfer the property and, if it is the case, to provide the documents regarding the goods, in the conditions specified by the contract. In this article, I will refer to the obligation of the seller to deliver the goods in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods signed at Vienna on 11 April 1980. In connection with the obligation to deliver goods, the Vienna Convention regulates three aspects, namely: the place of delivery of the goods; certain obligations of the seller; adjacent to the delivery and the time of delivery of the goods.

To Boldly Go, Part I: Developing a Specific Legal Framework for Assessing the Regulation of International Data Trade under the CISG

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) is an international sales law treaty concluded in 1980. Given its vintage, the CISG was drafted with traditional (physical) goods trade in mind. A significant body of scholarship has addressed the CISG’s capacity to govern electronic software transactions. However, only limited commentary has explored its digital application beyond software per se. This article develops a specific legal framework for assessing the CISG’s capacity to regulate international trade in non-software data: a framework so far missing from existing scholarship. ‘To Boldly Go, Part II’, this article’s counterpart, will go on to apply this framework to non-software data trade. Collectively, these articles establish that the CISG is capable of governing not only software trade (as previously established) but also trade in non-software data: a category of trade becoming increasingly economically important.