Larry_A_DiMatteo_-_International_Sales_Law_A_Global_Challenge-Cambridge_University_Press_2014

when a CISG provision requires further interpretation); . . . lex mercatoria, the law used by merchants since the middle ages and created by standard commercial practices and arbitral decisions; and . . . previous UNIDROIT international sales conventions (i.e., ULIS or UFL [sic]).44

In most research situations, consulting the “four pillars of CISG research”45 – text, travaux, commentary, and cases and arbitral awards – should suffice.46 There are a number of online research guides on the CISG47 that can be reviewed before the researcher accesses the major databases. The CISG is an area of law for which online sources are far more complete than what is available in print. Fortunately for the researcher, a number of valuable online resources have been developed to make research on the CISG “highly practicable.”48

V. Leading Online Resources for CISG Research

This part reviews the major online databases dedicated to providing access to primary and secondary sources on the CISG.

A. UNCITRAL

The UNCITRAL database is the product of the organization responsible for the drafting of the CISG. The scope of the UNCITRAL database goes beyond the CISG.

thought applied generally to international contracts. The drafters hoped that they would be a source that adjudicators could turn to when resolving disputes.” Research Handbook in International Economic Law 279 (ed. A.T. Guzman and A.O. Sykes) (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007). Like the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), which were drawn up under the aegis of the European Union and first issued in 1995, the UNIDROIT Principles postdate the CISG and do not carry any legal force. “They might, however, be useful as they provide an accurate, although partial, picture of what the current trends are in international transactions . . . Thus, they could be used to support a solution already existing under the CISG, but should not be used to add features to the CISG.” Andersen et al., A Practitioner’s Guide, 90. Both sets of Principles could also be used to establish “general principles” on which the CISG is based, as set out in Article 7(2) of the CISG. Salama, “Pragmatic Responses,” 243. These general principles include such concepts as good faith, reasonableness, freedom of contract, and party autonomy. Cesare Massimo Bianca and Michael Joachim Bonell, Commentary on the International Sales Law: The 1980 Vienna Sales Convention (Milan: Giuffre,` 1987), 80–2.

44Claire M. Germain, “The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: Guide to Research and Literature,” 24 Int’l J. of Legal Information 48, 52 (1996).

45Vikki M. Rogers, “American Society of International Law, Teaching International Law Interest Group Conference: Employing Web 2.0 in International Law Teaching and Scholarship” (May 6, 2011).

46See Albert H. Kritzer, “Guide to the Pace Database on the CISG and International Commercial Law,” CISG Database, http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/guide.html (last updated June 30, 2005).

47See, e.g., Jonathan Pratter, “Guide to Researching the CISG,” http://tarltonguides.law.utexas.edu/

CISG (last updated November 20, 2012); Duncan Alford, “A Guide on the Harmonization of International Commercial Law,” GlobaLex, http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Harmonization international commercial law.htm (last accessed August 5, 2013) (focusing not only on the CISG, but also on international commercial law generally); Jean M. Wenger, “International Economic Law,” ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law, http://www.asil.org/iel1.cfm (last updated October 25, 2010) (including links to resources broader in scope than the CISG). Note that in some cases, CISG is included as a subtopic of research guides on international commercial arbitration. See, e.g., Julienne Grant, “International Commercial Arbitration Research,” http://lawlibguides.luc.edu/content.php? pid=116835&sid=1007854 (last updated June 21, 2013).

48 Honnold, Uniform Law, 133.

Available in the six official languages of the United Nations, the database covers numerous instruments relating to the harmonization of international trade.49 The database offers texts and explanations of international agreements within its purview, as well as travaux preparatoires´, working group documents, and a regularly updated bibliography of commentaries on subjects related to UNCITRAL’s work.

For the CISG researcher, however, the most important component of the UNCITRAL database is the CLOUT (Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts) system,50 which provides abstracts of cases and arbitral decisions that have construed the conventions for which UNCITRAL is responsible, including the CISG. The purpose of CLOUT is:

[T]o promote international awareness of . . . legal texts elaborated or adopted by the Commission, to enable judges, arbitrators, lawyers, parties to commercial transactions and other interested persons to take decisions and awards relating to those texts into account in dealing with matters within their responsibilities and to promote the uniform interpretation and application of those texts.51

The system relies on national correspondents who “monitor and collect court decisions and arbitral awards, and prepare abstracts of those considered relevant in one of the official languages of the United Nations.”52 The abstracts are translated by the Secretariat into the other official languages and are “published [in print and online] at irregular intervals.”53 The full text of the decisions is archived by the Secretariat, and made available to individuals upon request. The abstracts can be searched by fields,54 and indicate the Articles of the CISG discussed in the case. The CLOUT abstracts have been incorporated into the Pace CISG Database.55

Another aid to locating relevant cases provided by UNCITRAL is its “Digest of Case Law on the United Nations Sales Convention,”56 also available through the Pace CISG Database. The Digest is organized by chapters, which group articles of the CISG under broad topics: “Each chapter contains a synopsis of the relevant case law, highlighting common views and reporting any divergent approach. The Digest is meant to reflect the evolution of case law”57 in order to further the goal of uniformity and predictability in

49According to the UNCITRAL Web site, UNCITRAL is “a subsidiary body of the General Assembly of the United Nations with the general mandate to further the progressive harmonization and unification of the law of international trade. UNCITRAL has since prepared a wide range of conventions, model laws and other instruments dealing with the substantive law that governs trade transactions,” http://www.uncitral. org/uncitral/en/about/origin faq.html (last accessed August 5, 2013).

50See http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/case law.html (last accessed August 5, 2013).

51U.N. Comm’n on Int’l Trade, Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT) User Guide, at 2, U.N. Doc. A/CN.9/SER.C/GUIDE/1/Rev.2 (June 2, 2010).

52Id.

53Id.

54The fields include country, UNCITRAL text, court, parties, case number, CLOUT number, and date of decision.

55See, e.g., http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/000712i3.html (last updated December 5, 2005). Note that while there were 1,238 cases and arbitral decisions in the CLOUT system as of August 5, 2013, there were 2,872 cases in the CISG Database on the same date.

56See http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/case law/digests.html (last accessed August 5, 2013).

57U.N. Comm’n on Int’l Trade Law, Introduction to the Digest of Case Law on the United Nations Sales Convention, at x, U.N. Doc. A/CN.9/562, June 9, 2004.

international sales law.58 UNCITRAL also produces an index and thesaurus,59 which “assist users of CLOUT in identifying cases relevant to a given issue by listing cases under the provision or sub-issue with which they deal.”60 These classification numbers have also been incorporated into the case law presentations of the Pace CISG Database.

B. CISG Database, Pace University School of Law

The premier database for research on the CISG is maintained by the Institute of International Commercial Law61 at Pace University School of Law (Database). This “extraordinary”62 database is designed to be a self-contained virtual library, where the researcher can find what he or she needs in order to complete a research project on the CISG. The database provides the official text of the CISG in all its official languages as well as several unofficial texts, extensive travaux preparatoires´, a large collection of commentaries available in full text, and cases and arbitral awards from around the world. It also includes lists of signatories, reservations, and declarations;63 guides and articles written by and for practitioners;64 CISG-AC opinions; CISG drafting tips;65 and a copious collection of links to other relevant websites.66

The CISG Database was officially launched in 1996 by Albert H. Kritzer, who

[w]as among the first members of the legal community to understand that the Internet would transform the way legal information is disseminated. The CISG database has leveled the playing field for the world trading and academic communities. In addition, it has laid the groundwork for a uniform application of the CISG by courts of the signatory nations.67

58See Franco Ferrari, “Remarks on the UNCITRAL Digest’s Comments on Article 6 CISG,” 25 J. of L. & Commerce 13 (2005) (asserting that the Digest is “helpful as it organizes all decisions under different headings,” but poses a risk to users because “certain statements drafted in one language [are] being wrongly translated into another.” Id., 13). Furthermore, the Digest neither criticizes nor supports decisions, and is selective in which cases it chooses to include. See also Joseph Lookofsky, “Digesting CISG Case Law: How Much Regard Should We Have?,” 8 Vindobona J. of Int’l Commercial L. & Arbitration 181 (2004) (The Digest lacks critical information; it “cannot help us distinguish the . . . precedents which are persuasive from those which are not.” Id., 194).

59See http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/case law/thesauri.html (last visited January 5, 2013).

60Id.

61For more information about the Institute, see Marie Stefanini Newman, “Albert Kritzer: Pioneer of Open Access to International Private Law,” in Sharing International Commercial Law across National Boundaries: Festschrift for Albert H Kritzer on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (ed. C.B. Andersen and U.G. Schroeter) (London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2008), 363 n. 8.

62Honnold, Uniform Law, 132.

63A reservation is “a formal declaration by a state becoming party to a treaty, specifying a certain condition on which its acceptance of the treaty is based.” James R. Fox, Dictionary of International and Comparative Law, 3rd ed. (Dobbs Ferry: Oceana, 2003), 281. Under CISG Article 98, only reservations explicitly authorized by the Convention are permitted. For a complete and provocative discussion of reservations and their effect on the CISG, see Flechtner, “The Several Texts of the CISG,” 193–7 (1998).

64See http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/guides.html (last updated May 25, 2010); http://www.cisg.law.pace. edu/cisg/biblio/butler6.html (last updated May 26, 2010).

65See http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/contracts.html (last updated July 26, 2005).

66See http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/links.html (last updated November 9, 2011). The value of the CISG Database was recognized when it was awarded the 2002 Web site award in the noncommercial category by the International Association of Law Libraries.

67Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 362 (footnote omitted).

Professor Kritzer was the guiding force behind the creation and development of the database. The many sources and features of the database include:

A broad variety of treatises and law review articles are also available on the database. Other resources, such as the commentaries on each article of the CISG and case commentaries, were commissioned for the CISG Database by Professor Kritzer.68 These original works were written by some of the foremost authorities on the CISG, and reflect a high level of scholarship.69

The database is regularly updated to incorporate new cases, awards, and commentaries. Professor Kritzer also insisted that the CISG Database be user friendly so that researchers whose first language is not English would be able to use it without undue difficulty. Making the CISG Database searchable has been an ongoing goal; keyword, Boolean, and advanced search features are available.

The CISG Database includes an “annotated text” of the CISG, which is one of its most useful features. For each article of the CISG, the annotated presentations make available links to introductions to the article, to its travaux, to cases that have construed the article, to scholarly commentaries about the article, and to comparisons between the article and relevant provisions of the UNIDROIT Principles and the Principles of European Contract Law.70

The database also offers the text and related cases of the CISG’s antecedents, the ULIS and the ULF, “which are available for comparative purposes and help to elucidate the genesis of the CISG.”71 Because some articles of the CISG are very similar to articles of ULIS and ULF,72 the two antecedents can be “mined” to aid in the interpretation of the CISG.73 Researchers can also take advantage of the “match-ups” of each article of the CISG with articles from ULIS and ULF. The match-ups make it easy to see to what extent the language of the earlier conventions was incorporated into the CISG.

The database provides an organized and coherent presentation of an extensive collection of travaux preparatoires´, which includes materials distributed to the 1980 Vienna Diplomatic Conference delegates before the meeting, proceedings of the 1980 Diplomatic Conference, and an article-by-article chronology of Diplomatic Conference proceedings so that the researcher can see how each article of the CISG evolved.

The database includes an extensive bibliography, which “benefits from the ‘bibliography rapporteurs,’ individuals in countries around the world who provide information about relevant articles and texts published in their countries.”74 Almost 1,600 of the entries are available in full text.

68Born-digital information is “created in digital form rather than converted from analog to digital.” Amy Friedlander, “Summary of Findings,” in Council on Library & Info. Res. & Library of Congress, Building a National Strategy for Digital Preservation: Issues in Digital Media Archiving 2 (2002), available at http:// www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/pub106.pdf.

69See, e.g., Article 7 with commentaries by Professors Robert Hillman, Ulrich Magnus, and John Felemegas, http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/e-text-07.html#schol (last updated January 4, 2012).

70For a brief discussion of the UNIDROIT Principles and the PECL and their research value, see note 43.

71Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 366–7. For more information about ULIS and ULF, see text accompanying notes 11–14.

72Honnold, Documentary History, 6.

73“Antecedents to the CISG,” CISG Database, http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/antecedents.html (last updated March 1996).

74Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 367 n. 29.

The publishing of case law is “the best spur to further convergence of decision making.”75 This promotes uniformity in application. The case presentations include case abstracts, case history, and links to scholarly commentary. The presentations of cases and arbitral awards76 benefit from the contributions of individuals around the world who translate cases into English77 under the auspices of the Case Translation Programme, a partnership between the Institute of International Commercial Law and Queen Mary College of the University of London.78 These translations are unique to the CISG Database.

The CISG Database is further enriched by the content provided by members of the Autonomous Network of CISG Websites.79 The Autonomous Network, one of Professor Kritzer’s most inspired ideas,80 is a “worldwide collection of Internet websites dedicated to the CISG and organized on a national basis. Each of the respective participating jurisdictions is charged with collecting all the CISG case law in the jurisdiction and publishing the decisions through the network.”81 The “major benefit flowing from the Autonomous Network is the increased volume of case law that is now available on the database.”82 However, the members of the Network not only provide cases; they also provide unofficial translations of the Convention and entries for the bibliography, and are instrumental in advocating for the adoption of the CISG.

The case law component of the database has resulted in a growing number of soundly argued cases in which courts have referenced cases and scholarly commentaries from other jurisdictions.83 As one commentator has noted, the database has led to “international cross-referencing of sources, as scholars include more languages and international cases in their comments on the CISG.”84

C. UNIDROIT and UNILEX

UNIDROIT offers the UNILEX database,85 which describes itself as an “intelligent database” and “a collection of international caselaw and bibliography on two of the

75Arthur W. Rovine, “Introduction: Convergence in International Arbitration,” in Contemporary Issues in International Arbitration and Mediation: The Fordham Papers 2009 (ed. A.W. Rovine) (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2010), xx.

76The database includes hundreds of arbitral awards from CIETAC, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, all translated into English.

77One commentator has pointed out, in relation to statutes, that “[t]he hegemony of English is such that there are few if any large-scale examples of free-access translations of legislation into languages other than English for primarily foreign consumption.” Graham Greenleaf, “Free Access to Legal Information, LIIs, and the Free Access to Law Movement,” in The IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management (ed. R.A. Danner and J. Winterton) (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), 216–17.

78See Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 371, and The Queen Mary Case Translation Programme, CISG Database, http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/queenmary.html (last updated February 23, 2012).

79http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/network.html (last updated August 22, 2011).

80As of this writing, there are twenty-six members of the Autonomous Network representing six continents. See Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 368–71.

81McNamara, “U.N. Sale of Goods Convention,” 22; Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 369–70.

82Newman, “Albert Kritzer,” 370 (describing the history and success of the Autonomous Network).

83Andersen, “The Global Jurisconsultorium,” 50 (discussing a number of CISG cases that considered foreign decisions).

84Id., 63.

85http://www.unilex.info/dynasite.cfm?dssid=2375&dsmid=14276 (last accessed August 5, 2013). UNILEX is also in the process of establishing the UNILAW database, http://ulr.unidroit.org/program.cfm?

most important international instruments for the regulation of international commercial transactions” – the CISG and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. The database is compiled and maintained under the editorial direction of Michael Joachim Bonell, one of the leading authorities on international sales law.

In addition to the text of the CISG and information about its status, UNILEX provides detailed abstracts of selected cases and arbitral decisions, and, whenever possible, the full text. The Pace CISG Database links to all available UNILEX abstracts within its case law presentations. Cases can be searched by date, country, arbitral tribunal, CISG article number, and subject. The extensive bibliography can be searched by author, CISG article, and area, such as “Damages” and “Passing of Risk.” The difference between the approaches of the CISG Database and the UNILEX database has been articulated as follows:

[The Pace CISG Database] has templates for keyword, Boolean and advanced searching as well as open queries; UNILEX uses a more conceptual approach to access articles and other documents on the CISG. The integration of textual commentary with the norms of transnational legal instruments provides a robust and ideal platform for research which the codex format cannot easily match as a tool of discovery for documents related inter-textually.86

UNIDROIT has also introduced the UNILAW database, which is “intended to permit ready access by governments, judges, arbitrators, practising lawyers and scholars to up-to- date information regarding uniform law conventions and other instruments.”87 However, it offers very little specifically relating to the CISG, and is best viewed as a work in progress.

D. TransLex

The premise underlying the TransLex database,88 a product of the Center for Transnational Law at the University of Cologne, is that sources of law beyond the CISG might sometimes be needed because the CISG is limited in scope to the conclusion of contracts, obligations of buyers and sellers, and remedies for breach of contract. Often practitioners and scholars need to consult “black letter text, materials and sources of general transnational commercial law principles.”89 The goal of TransLex is to

[r]eproduce in a list all those rules and principles . . . as black letter law which have been accepted in international arbitral and contract practice together with comprehensive comparative references. The list unifies the various sources that have fostered the evolution of a transnational commercial legal system into one single, open-ended set of rules and principles.90

menu=about&file=convention&pid=1&lang=en (last accessed August 5, 2013), which will offer materials on a variety of uniform law instruments.

86Marylin J. Raisch, “Shaping Electronic Collections in Foreign, Comparative and International Law,” in

The IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management (ed. R.A. Danner and J. Winterton) (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), 267.

87http://ulr.unidroit.org/program.cfm?menu=about&file=convention&pid=1&lang=en (last accessed August 5, 2013).

88http://www.trans-lex.org.

89Berger, “The TransLex Principles,” 34.

90Id., 37.

TransLex is composed of four sections, each of which is separately searchable: the TransLex Principles, which “contain[s] more than 120 principles and rules of transnational law,”91 and gives “access to many full-text references such as domestic statutes, legal doctrine, uniform law instruments, court decisions and arbitral awards”; the TransLexBibliography, “a selected collection of bibliographic references on transnational law organized in alphabetical order,” with some documents available in full text through the website; TransLex-Materials, “a collection of domestic statutes, international conventions, model laws, restatements and other soft-law instruments”; and TransLex-Links, “a selected collection of links to sites relevant for . . . doing research in transnational law and international business law.” The entire database can be searched as well. Several filters are available to make the search more precise; the researcher can filter by type of document and by language, in addition to limiting the search to a particular section of the database. TransLex’s scope – transnational commercial law – is very broad, and the CISG is but one of the many topics it covers. Nevertheless, TransLex may be useful in filling in the gaps where the CISG does not extend, and in helping to interpret the CISG.

E. Commercial Databases

In addition to the free resources on the CISG, there are several commercial, fee-based databases that offer some useful materials to the researcher who has access to them.92 However, as will become obvious, no commercial database begins to rival the depth and breadth of the materials offered by the free databases discussed above.

1. Lexis and Westlaw

Lexis and Westlaw are the leading commercial legal databases marketed to attorneys in the United States. Both contain federal and state primary authorities, as well as extensive proprietary secondary authorities. Neither is known for deep holdings of foreign and international law materials. The same is even more true of Bloomberg Law (BLaw), the latest entrant to this market, which is still adding content and functionality. There are a number of lower-cost93 and free94 legal databases, but they offer even less access to foreign and international law than the two large commercial databases.

91“How to Use,” TransLex Database, http://www.trans-lex.org/how-to-use-the-site-id3 (last accessed August 5, 2013).

92In addition to the commercial databases discussed in this section, there are other databases worth mentioning. Researchers will find the text of the CISG on HeinOnline, which also contains a collection of law review articles on international law, international arbitration materials (mainly historical in nature), and materials from and on the United Nations, including the UNCITRAL Digest, the UNCITRAL Yearbook, and the Records of the 1980 Diplomatic Conference, http://home.heinonline.org/. The CALI Web site offers four interactive lessons that might be helpful to the researcher: CISG Basics: Scope and General Provisions; CISG Basics: Formation; CISG Basics: Performance; and Private International Law Research, http://www.cali.org/category/cali-topics/2l-3l-upper-level-lesson-topics/international-law. SSRN, a searchable international database of scholarly working papers and forthcoming articles, http://www.ssrn.com/, offers access to materials that might not be otherwise available.

93Examples include Loislaw, http://www.loislaw.com/, which offers extensive secondary authority, and Fastcase, http://www.fastcase.com/, which focuses on primary authority.

94Examples include FindLaw, http://www.findlaw.com/, which is owned by Thomson Reuters, but includes none of its proprietary content, and Lexis Web, http://www.lexisweb.com, which offers access to free content from Web sites vetted by Lexis.

Lexis and Westlaw have not created databases dedicated to the law governing international sale of goods,95 although both offer the text of the CISG and searchable databases of law review articles on international law topics. Westlaw offers an arbitration database containing decisions,96 treatises, law review articles, and texts, but the focus is on international commercial arbitration, and not specifically on sources that refer to the CISG. Westlaw also offers commentary on the CISG through its online version of Guide to the International Sale of Goods Convention, which is a practitioner-oriented work. It does include case abstracts and legal summaries on the convention. Lexis offers even less relevant content than Westlaw. It has an international arbitration database, but otherwise there is nothing relevant to the CISG.

2. Kluwer Arbitration

A product of Kluwer Law International, this database is highly valued by students who are preparing for the Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot because it synthesizes all of the primary authorities on international commercial arbitration along with some of the leading commentaries. It is equally valued by practitioners who appreciate the well-organized, comprehensive, and high-quality content. Kluwer Arbitration includes court and arbitral decisions, legislation, treatises, journal articles, as well as lists of arbitrators, practice tools,97 and a blog devoted to international commercial arbitration – Kluwer Arbitration Blog.98 Like other commercial databases, Kluwer Arbitration offers a great deal of functionality, including basic and advanced search; the latter allows the researcher to craft very specific queries, resulting in precise search results. There are no materials specifically on international sales of goods, but the CISG, which is discussed in cases, arbitral awards, and commentary, can be searched effectively thanks to Kluwer Arbitration’s powerful search engine.

VI. Conclusion

As this chapter has demonstrated, the Internet offers a wealth of primary and secondary authorities on the CISG. These materials are freely accessible; moreover, they are wellorganized and full-featured databases that offer sophisticated search functionality. The online resources discussed in this chapter have led to increased knowledge about the CISG and greater willingness on the part of attorneys to use the CISG when drafting international sales contracts for their clients. They have also encouraged judges and arbitrators to consider and to cite foreign cases and commentaries when interpreting and applying the CISG. The CISG databases provide the means that allow courts and arbitral tribunals to render decisions that respect the CISG’s “international character” and the “need to promote uniformity in its application.”99

95Professor Kritzer believed that if such a database were available as part of Lexis or Westlaw, it would foster the use of the CISG by attorneys in the United States.

96The scope of the database is very limited, e.g., no CIETAC awards are included. See note 76 and accompanying text.

97See, e.g., customizable “Smart Charts” that introduce arbitrators to practice in various arbitral tribunals.

98See http://kluwerarbitrationblog.com/about/ (last accessed August 5, 2013).

99CISG Art. 7(1).

II. Drafting Issues: Six Official Languages

Drafting and translating a multilingual convention is a complex process. The CISG was adopted in the six official languages of the United Nations – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish4 – and further translated into additional languages. These other translations have no binding effect and can only assist courts in the respective countries where one of the official languages is not spoken.5 For instance, the four Germanspeaking countries – Austria, Germany, former East Germany, and Switzerland – jointly produced a semiofficial German translation of the CISG in 1983.6 There is a rich literature exploring the interrelationship between translation, legal drafting, and the role of “jurilinguists,” particularly in bilingual cultures such as Canada, the European Union, and in the international context in general.7

Much care has been taken by UNCITRAL in the drafting and translating of the CISG.8 However, the first issue asks if there is a difference in meaning between two of the official language versions, how does a court determine which language version should govern? The UN Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states that, in case of discrepancies in an international text, recourse should be made to the rules of interpretation of treaties,9 and if it fails, to the “meaning which best reconciles the texts, having regard to the object and purpose of the Treaty.”10 Some commentators, such as Professor Peter Schlechtriem and Professor Ingeborg Schwenzer, argue that the preliminary work on the CISG was done in English and French, and that it is reasonable to give priority to these two language versions.11 Schwenzer goes further by stating that, in practice, the majority view gives priority to the English version.12 Professor Ole Lando also favors English as the working

4See United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, “Witness Clause to the Convention,” in

UNCITRAL Digest of Case Law on the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods 453 (2012 ed.), available at www.uncitral.org/pdf/english/clout/CISG-DIGEST-2012-e.pdf, which explains that textual discrepancies are possible given the nature of language and that they are subject to the rules of interpretation of the Convention on the Law of Treaties. See also Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Article 33, May 23, 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331.

5Commentary on the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods, 3rd ed. (ed. Peter Schlechtriem and Ingeborg Schwenzer) (New York: Oxford, 2010), 25.

6Id.; see also Peter Schlechtriem, Uniform Sales Law: The UN-Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 114 (Manz: Vienna 1986), available at http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/biblio/ schlechtriem.html.

7See Mala Tabory, Multilingualism in International Law and Institutions (Alphen aan den Rijn: Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1980). See also Jean-Claude Gémar, “L’interprétation du texte juridique ou le dilemme du traducteur,” in Interprétation des textes juridiques rédigés dans plus d’une langue (ed. Rodolfo Sacco) (Torino: L’Harmattan, 2002), 103–41. The EC Commission’s Directorate General for Translation has an extensive Web site with useful information and resources to help in translation. Olivier Moreteau,´ “Le prototype, cle´ de l’interpretation´ uniforme: la standardisation des notions floues en droit du commerce international,” in Sacco, Interprétation des textes, 183–202; O. Moreteau´ and D. Lamethe,` “L’interpretation´ des textes juridiques redig´es´ dans plus d’une langue,” Revue Internationale de Droit Compare´ 327 (2006);

Jurilinguistique: entre langues et droits; Jurilinguistics: Between Law and Language (ed. Jean-Claude Gemar´ and Nicholas Kasirer) (Brussels: Bruylant, 2005), 407.

8See the thoughtful description of the process in Luca Castellani, “International Trade Law and Language: The UNCITRAL Experience” (2006) (unpublished draft, on file with author).

9Vienna Convention, Art. 31–2.

10United Nations Commission, “Witness Clause,” 453 (citing Vienna Convention, Art. 33(4)).

11Schlechtriem makes the argument for using the English (and French) text to resolve discrepancies in different languages. Schlechtreim and Schwenzer, Commentary, 21, 940.

12Id.