City University of Hong Kong (CityU) School of Law (SLW) hosted “The Annual MAA Peter Schlechtriem CISG Conference: Towards Uniformity” on 13 March.

The conference was organised by the Moot Alumni Association (MAA) with the support of The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). It brought together judges, legal practitioners and academics from Asia, the US, Europe and South Africa to examine the latest developments regarding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), in relation to its interpretation, and the obligations and remedies of the buyer and seller with a focus on moving towards uniformity.

Mr Luca Castellani, UNCITRAL Secretariat, sent his congratulations and welcoming notes. Mr Felix Lautenschlager, President of MAA, and Professor Wang Guiguo, Dean of SLW of CityU, delivered welcoming addresses at the conference.

CISG was developed by UNCITRAL as a multilateral treaty that sets out substantive provisions of law to govern the formation of international sales contracts. Its overall goal is to promote worldwide uniformity in dealing with sales disputes arising from international trade.

Uniformity is difficult to achieve in practice, taking into account the complexity of international trade and the differences in the legal regimes involved. The application of unified international sales law is one of the approaches to cross-border transactions. Conference participants have specifically discussed the regional impact of the CISG in harmonising sales law in Asia.

Papers from the conference will be published as a book, International Commerce and Arbitration, in mid-2010.