986, the United States ratified CISG, effective January 1, 1988. Mexico ratified CISG in 1987 and adopted legislation to enact it in 1988.
Under Article 1(1), CISG is applicable to contracts for the international sale of goods "between parties whose places
of business are in different States: (a) When the States are Contracting States; or (b) When the rules of private international law lead to the application of the law of a Contracting State." Under Article 6 parties to an international contract for the sale of goods are free "to exclude the application of this convention, or subject to Article 12, derogate from or vary the effect of any of its provisions." Under Article 1.1(b), CISG can apply not only to contracts involving signatories to it, but also to contracts involving non-signatories if they happen to have a place of business in a Contracting State and if the choice of law rules applicable to the contract call for the law of a Contracting State to apply to it. Article 95 permits any Contracting State to declare that it will not be bound by Article 1 (1)(b). The United States has
declared that it will not be bound by Article 1(1)(b), on the
grounds that to do so would displace the application of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Winship says that under the American reservation, "a court sitting in the United States is required to apply the convention only if the parties before it have their places of business in different Contracting States, such as where the seller is in Texas and the buyer is in Mexico."
CISG by its terms does not apply to contracts for the supply of services (Art. 3(2)), goods bought for personal, family or household use (Art. 2 (a)), at auction (Art. 2(b)), on execution or otherwise by authority at law (Art. 2(c)), purchases and sales of stocks, negotiable instruments and money (Art. 2(d)), ships, vessels, hovercraft or aircraft (Art. 2(e)) or of electricity (Art. 2(f)). CISG also doe...