International Sales Law (CISG)

Dear students, please note that the CISG lecture of Tuesday, 22 November will be canceled. The lectures will resume on Tuesday, 29 November.

Dear students, please be informed that the lecture on October 4, 2022 cannot take place in person. Instead, it will take place via Zoom. Please find the login details below. 

Topic: Lesson 3 - CISG 

Time: Oct 4, 2022 07:45 AM Zurich

Join Zoom Meeting

https://uzh.zoom.us/j/69264401429?pwd=TkZybnFSWHpjWWNTR1VhUXVMcXRHZz09

Meeting ID: 692 6440 1429

Passcode: 440066

Join by SIP

69264401429@fr.zmeu.us

Join by H.323

213.19.144.110 (Amsterdam Netherlands)

213.244.140.110 (Germany)

207.226.132.110 (Japan Tokyo)

149.137.24.110 (Japan Osaka)

Meeting ID: 692 6440 1429

Passcode: 440066

Administration of the Course

Until further notice, classes in the autumn term 2022 will only be offered in class. Please make sure to consult the OLAT website of the 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 different approaches in Civil Law and Common Law jurisdictions, thereby facilitating students with international background 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.

Swiss Code of Obligation (PDF, 4 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.