Welcome to the CISG Advisory Council (CISG-AC)

Scope and Aims

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.

Internationality and Uniformity

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.

Mode of Operation

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.

Observer Status at UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT

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.

New Secretary


      Council is also happy to announce the appointment of a
      new secretary to replace Sieg Eiselen after his election as
      member of the Council. Ass Prof Dr Milena Djordjević is
      well-established in CISG circles. She is the Director of
      Center for Legal Skills and an Assistant Professor at the
      University of Belgrade Faculty of Law where she teaches
      International Commercial Law, International Commercial
      Arbitration, Foreign Investment Law, EU Trade Policy and
      Legal English. Milena has published extensively on the
      CISG, arbitration,  WTO law and EU trade law.

She also coached Belgrade moot team for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for the past seventeen years and is the organizer of the Belgrade Open Pre-Moot and Belgrade Arbitration Conference.

She is a member of: the ICC Court of Arbitration, ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, ICC Central and Eastern European Arbitration Group, Supervisory Board of Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge, Board of Serbian Arbitration Association, Board of Serbian Association of Commercial Lawyers and she is a national CLOUT correspondent to UNCITRAL for Serbia.

* New Opinions, Declarations and
   Translations

  • The CISG Advisory Council adopted the Black Letter Rules for Opinion No 20 
          "Hardship"  Rapporteur Dr Edgardo Muñoz, at its 27th Meeting in Puerto Vallarata,
           Mexico during February 2020. The Opinion has now been published.
  •  The CISG Advisory Council adopted the Black Letter Rules for Opinion No  21
           "Replacement and Repair under Articles 48 and 49 CISG" Rapporteurs
           Prof Ingeborg Schwenzer and Dr Ilka Beimel at its 27th Meeting in Puerto Vallarata, 
           Mexico during February 2020. The Opinion will be published after finalization of the 
           Comments.        .

New translations

 The following new translations are now available:

  • Opinion 1 in Latvian
  • Opinions No 5, 9 and 11 and Declaration No 1 in Portuguese
  • Opinions No 18 and 19 in Spanish

* New case law

Belgium

Volz v Groep Jam Hof van Beroep Antwerpen (Court of Appeal Antwerp) Case no 2013-AR/299 of 9 February  2015
Opinion no 13
Case  excerpt (Dutch)

United States

Sunrise Foods international Inc v Ryan Hinton Inc 2019 WL 3755499 (D Idaho, 2019)
Opinion No 6


HRC-Hainan Holding Company, LLC v. Yihan Hu 2020 WL 906719 (ND Cal, 2020)
Opinion No 3

Netherlands

Gemini Corporation N.V. v. 24/7 Media B.V. 11 November 2019 Rechtbank [District Court] Noord-Nederland 
Opinion No 9
Full text (Dutch)

Next CISG Advisory Council Meetings

Due to the current Covid-19 crisis 28th CISG Advisory Council meeting will take place virtually in a series of meetings in October and November 2020. Due to the unusual circumstances the number of observers will be restricted. 
For more information contact the secretary Ass-Prof  Milena Djordjević .