United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

CISG

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods
ratified   signed, but not ratified
Type	multilateral uniform international sales treaty
Signed	11 April 1980
Location	Vienna, Austria
Effective	1 January 1988
Condition	10 ratifications
Signatories	18
Parties	85
Depositary	The Secretary-General of the United Nations
Languages	Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG; the Vienna Convention) is a treaty that is a uniform international sales law. As of May 2016, it has been ratified by 85 states that account for a significant proportion of world trade, making it one of the most successful international uniform laws. Azerbaijan was the most recent state to ratify the Convention, having acceded to it on 3 May 2016.

The CISG was developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and was signed in Vienna in 1980. The CISG is sometimes referred to as the Vienna Convention (but is not to be confused with ). It came into force as a multilateral treaty on 1 January 1988, after being ratified by 11 countries.

The CISG allows exporters to avoid choice of law issues, as the CISG offers "accepted substantive rules on which contracting parties, courts, and arbitrators may rely". Unless excluded by the express terms of a contract, the CISG is deemed to be incorporated into (and supplant) any otherwise applicable domestic law(s) with respect to a transaction in goods between parties from different Contracting States.

The CISG has been regarded as a success for the UNCITRAL, as the Convention has been accepted by states from "every geographical region, every stage of economic development and every major legal, social and economic system". Countries that have ratified the CISG are referred to within the treaty as “Contracting States”. Of the uniform law conventions, the CISG has been described as having "the greatest influence on the law of worldwide trans-border commerce". It has been described as a great legislative achievement, and the "most successful international document so far" in unified international sales law, in part due to its flexibility in allowing Contracting States the option of taking exception to certain specified articles. This flexibility was instrumental in convincing states with disparate legal traditions to subscribe to an otherwise uniform code. While certain State parties to the CISG have lodged declarations, the vast majority – 64 out of the current 85 Contracting States – have chosen to accede to the Convention without any declaration.