Supervisors info:
Αναστάσιος Γουργουρίνης, Λέκτορας, Tμήμα Νομικής, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Summary:
The present paper seeks to demonstrate the relevance of the law of treaties to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (hereinafter “CISG”). As Dorr put it, the law of treaties constitutes the “backbone of the international legal order”. The rules of the law of treaties are codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (hereinafter “VCLT”). The rules that the VCLT includes are residual. This means that, firstly, the VCLT provides flexible tools for dealing with challenges in the conclusion of treaties, but it is ultimately left upon States to decide on the procedural and substantive content of their agreements. Secondly, that the VCLT is lex generalis to the international agreements it governs, serving as gap-filling mechanism for matters not regulated by lex specialis.
The CISG, on the other hand, is an international agreement that establishes a uniform text of law governing international sales of goods. It particularly applies to contracts of sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in different States, either when the States are Contracting States or when the rules of private international law point to the application of the law of a Contracting State.
The CISG forms “international agreement concluded between States” and thus falls under the scope of the VCLT. Against this backdrop, the present paper is separated in three Chapters. The first one seeks to demonstrate that the CISG meets all the requirements for a treaty to fall under the scope of the VCLT. It is a written agreement between States that is governed by international law.
The second Chapter refers to the issue of the CISG’s interpretation. The CISG, specifically, includes its own interpretative clause in article 7. However, this does not exclude the application of the interpretation rules and principles that the VCLT provides for. Quite to the contrary, articles 31 – 33 VCLT are employed for the following purposes; firstly, to supplement the interpretative clause of the CISG, which does not contain the means that are provided under the customary interpretation rules. Secondly, to construe the broad – and thus vague – notions that are mentioned in the CISG’s interpretative clause itself.
The third and last Chapter addresses certain issues arising out of the Final Part of the CISG. This part of the CISG is related to the CISG’s entering into force and termination, as well as to reservations and interpretative declarations. Again, the CISG applies as lex specialis, but the law of treaties provides solutions to matters that the CISG does not address and are thus disputed as to their application.
What is also examined under the last Chapter is the CISG’s regime regarding reservations and interpretative declarations. The CISG provides for certain permissible “declarations” and prohibits the formulation of reservations not provided for in its text. The gaps that the CISG contains are filled by virtue of the VCLT and the ILC Guide to Practice on Reservations to Treaties. On this basis, solutions are provided as to the interpretation, application and effect of reservations, as well as to whether interpretative declarations are permissible under the CISG based on the “object and purpose” formula that is employed under the law of treaties.
