International Sales Law (CISG)

Dear Students,

Given the latest instructions of the Exam Management Office, I would like to advise you that you do not need to bring a copy of the Swiss Code of Obligations to the exam. This amendment is ment to avoid wasting paper, as the instructions do not allow students to bring just the Sales part, but would require you to print the whole code.  

You still need to bring a copy of the CISG text. The CISG text can be in two languages (e.g. including your mother tongue). You can have notes/references/short (!) notes beside the articles. However, no writing on separate pages or the back side of the print-out is allowed. Should you not comply with this, we will give you another CISG text.  

Wishing you all the best for the festive season and the New Year! See you on the 14th of January 2022.  

Yeşim Atamer

Administration of the Course

More information in terms of presence lectures and the availability of podcasts will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Please make sure to consult the OLAT course regularly.

Content

This course is designed to introduce students to the theoretical and practical problems of international sales law and the legal solutions served by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), which entered into force in 1988 and counts today more than ninety contracting states. The course focuses mainly on the scope of application of the CISG, the hierarchy between the CISG and national sales law provisions, formation of the contract under the CISG, obligations of the parties and remedies in case of non-performance, and the liability regime of the CISG. The course aims also to use the CISG as a base to discuss differing approaches in Civil Law and Common Law jurisdictions, thereby facilitating students with an international backgrounds to scrutinize their own national sales law system.

• Students should have attended and passed a general contract law course as well as a course serving basic knowledge of national sales law provisions.
• A good command of English is essential.

• Peter Huber/Alastair Mullis, The CISG, A new textbook for students and practitioners, 2014 (PDF, 1 MB)
• Peter Schlechtriem/Petra Butler, UN Law on International Sales, 2009.

Syllabus (PDF, 291 KB)

Swiss Code of Obligation (PDF, 1 MB)

CISG (PDF, 339 KB)

The PPT Presentations will be made available on OLAT.

In order to successfully complete the course students need to demonstrate their knowledge in a written final exam. This exam will mainly involve case studies where the students have to prove their ability to apply the blackletter rules of the CISG to a given case and to generate arguments in case of a lacuna in the CISG.

The exam date for International Sales Law (CISG) is announced as the 14th January 2022, 9:00-11:00.