Welcome to the CISG Advisory Council (CISG-AC)

The CISG-AC is a private initiative which aims at promoting a uniform interpretation of the CISG. It is a private initiative in the sense that its members do not represent countries or legal cultures, but they are scholars who look beyond the cooking pot for ideas and for a more profound understanding of issues relating to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11 April 1980 (CISG).

The CISG Advisory Council was founded on the initiative of the inspirational late Prof Albert Kritzer of the Institute of International Commercial Law in 2001. Prof Kritzer was at the forefront of the promotion of the harmonization of international commercial law with initiates like the CISG Advisory Council, the Institute's database on the CISG and the Willem C Vis Moot.

As an independent body of experts, the group is afforded the luxury of being critical of judicial or arbitral decision and of addressing issues not dealt with previously by adjudicating bodies. The Council is guided by the mandate of Article 7 of the Convention as far as its interpretation and application are concerned: the paramount regard to international character of the Convention and the need to promote uniformity.

In line with its objectives, the CISG Advisory Council is also committed to the multinational and multi-lingual character of the CISG. Accordingly the opinions of the Council is being made available in all six of the official languages of the CISG as well as a number of other prominent trade languages. In this the Council is well served by the international composition of its members.

In practical terms, the primary purpose of the CISG-AC is to issue opinions relating to the interpretation and application of the Convention on request or on its own initiative. Requests may be submitted to the CISG-AC, in particular, by international organizations, professional associations and adjudication bodies.

On 10 September 2012 the CISG-AC was granted observer status by UNCITRAL. This  enables the CISG-AC to attend meetings of UNCITRAL and its working groups.

On 4 February 2015 the CISG-AC was granted observer status at the Governing Council of UNIDROIT. This  enables the CISG-AC to attend meetings of UNIDROIT.

Council is happy to announce the election of Professor Pilar Perales Viscasillas as the new chair of the Council for the period 2022 to 2025. We wish her all the best in this important  task.

Our thanks also go to the outgoing chair Prof Michael Bridge who has so ably steered this ship through the difficult and challenging times of the Covid19-pandemic. Michael completed two terms as chair from 2017-2022.

• Opinion No 22  The seller’s liability for goods infringing intellectual property rights under Article 42 CISG (Rapporteur Dr David Tebel) has now been published.
• For a list of opinions currently under discussion see our Schedule of work page.  

 The following new translations are now available:

• Opinion 5 in Latvian
• Opinions No 20 and 21 in Spanish

• Toiletsystem case Slovak Republic 30 July 2019Okresný súd Žilina (District Court Žilina) Opinion 4

  Case text (Slovak)
  
  

• CeDe Group AB v. KAN Sp. z o.o.Högsta domstolen (Swedish Supreme Court), 29 May 2020 Opinion 18
  Case text (English) 

The next physical CISG Advisory Council meeting will take place in Kopaonik, Serbia during December 2023. Further online meetings may be held in the course of 2023.

For more information contact the secretary Ass-Prof  Milena Djordjević.