The rationale behind the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is that a uniform sales law will lead to improved efficiency of cross-border sales and promote international trade. However, although it continues to attract new Member States and now applies to more than 80% of global trade, commercial parties often exclude the CISG, questioning it as a desirable choice of law.

This thorough and detailed Research Handbook explores the complexity of governance of sales contracts in the modern world. It examines many topical aspects of sales law and practice, with considerable emphasis being placed on the diversity of: commercial and transactional contexts; in which sales contracts are made and performed, including digital technologies, long-term contracts and global supply chains and sources governing such contracts, particularly those emanating from commercial players, such as standard form contracts, trade usages and trade terms. Written by leading experts from an international and comparative perspective, the Research Handbook is relevant to anyone with an interest in commercial sales and contract law.

This book brings together the top international sales law scholars from twenty-three countries to review the Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods (CISG) and its role in the unification of global sales law. It reviews the substance of CISG rules and analyzes alternative interpretations. A comparative analysis is given of how countries have accepted, interpreted, and applied the CISG. Theoretical insights are offered into the problems of uniform laws, the CISG's role in bridging the gap between the common and civil legal traditions, and the debate over good faith in CISG jurisprudence. The book reviews case law relating to the interpretation and application of the provisions of the CISG; analyzes how it has been recognized and implemented by national courts and arbitral tribunals; offers insights into problems of uniformity of application of an international sales convention; compares the CISG with the English Sale of Goods Act and places it in the context of other texts of UNCITRAL; and analyzes the CISG from the practitioner's perspective.

In this volume, the Study Group and the Acquis Group present the first academic Draft of a Common Frame of Reference (DCFR). The Draft is based in part on a revised version of the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and contains Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law in an interim outline edition. It covers the books on contracts and other juridical acts, obligations and corresponding rights, certain specific contracts, and non-contractual obligations. One purpose of the text is to provide material for a possible "political" Common Frame of Reference (CFR) which was called for by the European Commission's Action Plan on a More Coherent European Contract Law of January 2003.

Commercial contract law is in every sense optional given the choice between legal systems and law and arbitration. Its 'doctrines' are in fact virtually all default rules. Contract Law Minimalism advances the thesis that commercial parties prefer a minimalist law that sets out to enforce what they have decided - but does nothing else. The limited capacity of the legal process is the key to this 'minimalist' stance. This book considers evidence that such minimalism is indeed what commercial parties choose to govern their transactions. It critically engages with alternative schools of thought, that call for active regulation of contracts to promote either economic efficiency or the trust and co-operation necessary for 'relational contracting'. The book also necessarily argues against the view that private law should be understood non-instrumentally (whether through promissory morality, corrective justice, taxonomic rationality, or otherwise). It sketches a restatement of English contract law in line with the thesis.