The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is a framework set in place to help the world community by:

• Facilitating international trade;
• Promoting common understandings;
• Removing legal barriers;
• Improving efficiencies;
• Reducing costs.

Following its adoption by eleven countries, the CISG entered into effect on January 1, 1988. Subsequent ratifications of conventions on private law normally proceed at a glacial pace, not so the CISG.

• This uniform international sales law has now been adopted by countries of the North, South, East and West that account for two-thirds of all world trade.

• The CISG has an extensive legislative history, over 3,000 commentaries, and over 600 judicial and arbitral interpretations, but many of the research sources to which persons have customarily turned often do not have desired elements of this material at hand. This has presented a challenge for:

  - Persons who wish to consider the CISG;

  - Persons who apply the CISG to their transactions; and

  - Jurists and arbitrators who rule on the CISG.

• The Institute of International Commercial Law of the Pace University School of Law has set in place:

  - An Internet Website on the CISG;
  - A CD-ROM on this law;
  - A Moot on the CISG;
  - An Essay Competition on this law;
  - A Law Journal on the CISG.

• They are synergetic programs.

The Internet Website <http://www.cisg.pace.edu>

The Internet Website is an electronic library on the CISG. Its contents are made freely available on the World-Wide Web.

The Internet Website focuses on the text of the CISG, its legislative history (travaux préparatoires), scholarly writings (doctrine), and case law (jurisprudence).

The Website receives over 100,000 "hits" each month. They are from persons of over 125 countries.

• A feature of the Internet is collegiality. This has led to deposits of material by persons who draw on the website.

• Networking with persons who draw on the website has helped expand and improve the contents of the website.

Networking has, in addition, led to creation of a global consortium of CISG websites <http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/network.html>.

• Participating universities and centers devise the contents of national or regional sites on the uniform sales law. They set them in place to serve indigenous audiences.

• Their sites are devoted to serving domestic audiences of traders and counsel, scholars and jurists.

• Participating sites draw upon one another. By linking sites:

  - Each site enriches the contents of the library on the uniform law it serves to its audiences;

  - Each site enriches the contents of the libraries on the uniform law that the other consortium sites serve to their audiences.

• Together we enrich our service to the world trade community.

The consortium began with a linkage of companion sites from United States, German and France. The shared endeavor today also includes sites for Brazil, Finland, Israel, Japan, Spain and for the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America. Companion sites are being set in place for the Russian Federation and for the Arab States. See <http://csmail.law.pace.edu/cisgrussian/index.html>. See as well <http://deborah.law.pace.edu/cisgarabic/index.html>. Work is also underway on possible indigenous sites for China and Greece. It is our plan to expand consortium sites; we seek one for every country.

Case law comes from jurisdictions that have well established procedures for reporting judicial rulings and from jurisdictions accustomed to reporting procedures that are less well set in place. Each member of the consortium assumes responsibility for reporting case law interpretations of the CISG from the jurisdiction it serves. Consortium sharings make case contents of all sites more comprehensive. Case translation assistance is also often shared.

Related sharings add to and improve other sections of the Internet Website, for example, the thousands of bibliography entries in the U.S. site are segregable into 24 languages; the Arabic site is adding to and refining citations to commentaries in this language, linking to the U.S. site for citations in other languages. Other such sharings further enhance the contents of consortium websites.

The intent of the Internet Website is to utilize computer technology to make instantly available practices and rulings of all countries, in English translation and original text, electronically catalogued and globally linked to a mass of related data.

The Internet Website features annotated texts of each article of the uniform law. The annotations provide links to case presentations, texts of scholarly writings, bibliography citations and other data. One-stop "shopping" per article of the CISG is a goal.

Countries that have adopted the CISG share the legislative history of the uniform law. The manner in which it can be presented on the computer -- article by article and in chronological sequence -- illustrates another virtue of an electronic presentation.

The CD-ROM

Another feature of the computer-driven website is the equivalent of catalogued "bookshelves" of full texts of scholarly writings on the CISG. These are for the most part commentaries reproduced with the permission of university law journals. There are, in addition, excellent commercial texts on the CISG. However, authorization cannot be obtained to present them free on the Internet due to copyright restrictions -- but added benefits can be provided for researchers by integrating these texts with the mass of related material on the Internet Website. Such texts are being integrated with the contents of the website on a CD-ROM marketed by a commercial publisher. Royalties from sales of the CD-ROM will help fund the Internet Website, so it can continue to be made freely available to its constituency -- all persons of all countries.

The Moot, the Essay Event, and the CISG Journal

The Moot on the CISG <http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/vis.html> provides hands-on training to law leaders of tomorrow and to arbitrators. The 1999 Moot attracted 70 law school teams from 29 countries, and over 150 arbitrators from still more countries.

The Essay Event <http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/essay.html> has attracted scholarly commentaries on the CISG from 33 countries. The Institute publishes outstanding submissions on the Internet.

The Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is a law journal devoted to further study of the CISG. It is edited by the Pace International Law Review in collaboration with the Moot Alumni Association.

The intent of the Website, CD-ROM, Moot, Essay Event, CISG Journal

Persons of all countries sharing knowledge, insights and lessons learned in evaluating and applying the CISG; working in synergy to benefit traders of national markets and the world trade community.

Pace Law School Institute of International Commercial Law