2.3 Basic Features of the UN Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods

The CISG (Vienna 1980, in force 1988): the sales' uniform law — the two parts: the formation (the offer-acceptance's rules — the battle-of-forms resolution) and the sales (the obligations, the risk, the remedies). The features (the exam's list): 1. The scope: the goods (not the services, the consumer-and-personal sales excluded); the internationality (the different-states parties — the habitual-residence test); the exclusions (the auction, the execution, the securities, the ships-and-aircraft). 2. The opt-out-and-reservations: the parties' exclusion (the autonomy preserved — the Convention as the default); the reservations (the written-form declaration). 3. The interpretation's principles: the good faith's international character; the uniformity's duty (the autonomous interpretation — the foreign-cases' consultation). 4. The gap-filling: the general principles (the Convention's own); the law's resort (the private- international route). 5. The contract's validity excluded (the domestic-law questions retained) and the product- liability faces (the injuries-to-person excluded).