This research paper deals with the relevance of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) to international trade relationships and practices between the United States and Mexico. CISG was intended to provide a common legal framework which would promote the development of international trade. Prior to the adoption of CISG and its ratification by the United States and Mexico, trade between the two countries lacked such a framework. The approach taken in this essay is to state the principal criticisms of CISG and to analyze their validity or invalidity in the context of the actual course of Mexican-American trade, including the case law under which CISG has been interpreted by various courts. The conclusions are: (1) CISG has played only a very marginal role in facilitating the great expansion of that trade which has occurred over the past decade, other factors being much more important; (2) there is a need for the development of common legal standards to govern that trade, notwithstanding the views of the critics of CISG; and (3) the case law is in much too embryonic a state to conclude whether or not CISG will fulfill its intended purposes. However, there clearly are some problems with how CISG has been interpreted by various national tribunals, which need to be resolved over time.
CISG was the product of more than 50 years' work by legal experts working under the auspices of the League of Nations and the United Nations. The text of the Convention was approved without dissent at a UN conference held in Vienna in 1980. By September 30, 1981, 27 nations had signed it. By May, 1996, the number of countries acceding to CISG reached 47 and included most nations engaged in international trade. Notable by their absence were Great Britain and Japan and other important trading nations, including Algeria, Brazil, Greece, India, Indonesia and Israel.
Following Senate approval on October 9, 1...