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ANNOTATED TEXT OF CISG
Article 18
(1) A statement made by or other conduct of the offeree indicating assent to
an offer is an
acceptance. Silence or inactivity does not in itself amount to
acceptance.
(2) An acceptance of an offer becomes effective at the moment the indication
of assent
reaches the offeror. An acceptance is not effective if the indication of
assent does not reach
the offeror within the time he has fixed or, if no time is fixed, within a
reasonable time,
due account being taken of the circumstances of the transaction, including
the rapidity of
the means of communication employed by the offeror. An oral offer must be
accepted
immediately unless the circumstances indicate otherwise.
(3) However, if, by virtue of the offer or as a result of practices which
the parties have
established between themselves or of usage, the offeree may indicate assent
by performing
an act, such as one relating to the dispatch of the goods or payment of the
price, without
notice to the offeror, the acceptance is effective at the moment the act is
performed,
provided that the act is performed within the period of time laid down in
the preceding
paragraph.
Legislative history || Case law || Scholarly writings || Links to related articles || Words and phrases ||
Other Formation issues ||
CISG (full-text)
Guide to this article
Legislative history
Case law
Scholarly writings on this article
The cisgw3 bibliography contains over 8,000 citations. It is therefore likely that, in addition to case law, you will find scholarly literature - often a wealth of such literature - on virtually every aspect of the CISG you research.
- Selected monographs and anthologies
Comments on Article 18 from seminal 1986 text by Peter Schlechtriem [Germany]
Comments on Article 18 from monograph by Jacob S. Ziegel [Canada]
Comments on Article 18 by E. Allan Farnsworth [U.S.] in 1987 Bianca-Bonell Commentary on the International Sales Law
Comments on Article 18 by John O. Honnold [U.S.] in the 3rd ed. (1999) of the most frequently cited text on the CISG: Uniform Law for International Sales
Comments on Article 18 in December 2000 text by Joseph Lookofsky [Denmark / U.S.]
Commentarios al Articulo 18 sobre textos de 2001 por Pilar Perales [España]
See also the helpful Enderlein & Maskow text (cited below under the words and phrases section of this Annotated Text material)
Citations to materials on this article in other texts (selected texts only)
Texts of selected law journal articles and other commentaries
- Larry A. DiMatteo, Critical Issues in the Formation of Contracts under the CISG, [papers from Uniform Sales Law: the CISG at its 30th Anniversary, a conference in memory of Albert H. Kritzer, 12-13 November 2010, Belgrade] The Annals of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade - Belgrade Law Review, Year LIX (2011) no. 3 pp. 67-83
- Michael Esser [Germany],
Commercial Letters of Confirmation in International Trade: Austrian, French, German and Swiss Law and Uniform Law
under the 1980 Sales Convention [silence or inactivity does not in itself amount to acceptance (Art. 18(1)) vs. applicable usages (Art. 9)], 18 Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law (1988) 427-460
- Burt A. Leete [U.S.], excerpt from Contract Formation under the United Nations Convention for the International Sale of Goods and the Uniform Commercial Code: Pitfalls for the Unwary, 6 Temple International and Comparative Law Journal (1992) 193- 215
- John E. Murray, Jr. [U.S.], excerpt from An Essay on the Formation of Contracts and Related Matters under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, 8 Journal of Law and Commerce (1998) 11-51
- Rob Schultz [U.S.], Rolling Contract Formation Under the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, 35 Cornell International Law Journal (2001) 263-289 [issues associated with "silence and inactivity" ... in itself" and shrinkwrap contracts and rolling contract formation and battles of the forms]
- Kazuaki Sono [Japan], Formation of International Contracts under the Vienna Convention: A Shift above the Comparative Law, in: Sarcevic & Volken ed., International Sale of Goods: Dubrovnik Lectures, Oceana (1986), Ch. 4, 111-131
- Supplementary list of citations to Article 18 commentaries: Unilex citations*
* Most members of the Autonomous Network of CISG Websites also offer bibliographies. Many are tailored, concentrating on commentaries by authors from or writing on CISG issues of special interest to specific countries or regions; some, e.g. CISG online are general and extensive; some, e.g., CISG-Belgium and CISG-Finland also list commentaries by individual articles of the CISG.
- See also formation commentaries listed below
- To identify other relevant commentaries, go to the cisgw3 Bibliography and Bibliography Search Form
[acceptance, formation and offer are search form entries you may wish to consider]
Bibliography citations on acceptance
Citations on formation
Citations on offer
We also encourage you to tailor your own cisgw3 bibliography search to the specific aspect of this article that you are researching.*
* The cisgw3 bibliography contains over 500 pages of citations. Analyzing these listings can pay dividends.
Links to related articles
Attention to related articles and to the CISG in its entirety is important. This is an autonomous law, i.e.,
it is meant to be construed within its four corners. When considering aspects of the CISG, because this
law relies heavily on general principles, one ought to look at related provisions and the CISG in its
entirety.
- All of the CISG's Formation provisions are related to one another. By way of illustration, go to:
Sylvette Guillemard [Canada], Comparaison des Principes UNIDROIT et des Principes du droit européen des contrats dans la perspective de l'harmonisation du droit applicable à la formation des contrats internationaux [Comparison of the UNIDROIT Principles and the Principles of European Contract Law from the perspective of harmonization of the law applicable to the formation of international contracts (CISG comments included) - in French], thesis Université Laval (23 May 1999). Also available in English text
Pilar Perales Viscasillas [Spain], The Formation of Contracts and the Principles of European Law, 13 Pace International Law Review (Fall 2001) 371-397
Ingeborg Schwenzer & Florian Mohs, Old Habits Die Hard: Traditional Contract Formation in a Modern World, Internationales Handelsrecht (6/2006) 239-246
Peter Winship [U.S.], Formation of International Sales Contracts under the 1980 Vienna Convention, 17 International Lawyer (1983) 1-18
Citations to broader multi-lingual selection of commentaries on Formation of the contract
The CISG has eleven Formation provisions. For links to the other ten, go to Annotated Text of Article 14 [Criteria for an offer];
go to Annotated Text of Article 15 [When offer becomes effective: prior withdrawal];
go to Annotated Text of Article 16 [Revocability of offer];
go to Annotated Text of Article 17 [Rejection of offer followed by acceptance];
go to Annotated Text of Article 19 ["Acceptances" with
modifications] (when a "battle-of-the-forms" transaction arises, Articles 18 and 19 may both be relevant);
go to Annotated Text of Article 20 [Interpretation of offeror's
time-limits for acceptance];
go to Annotated Text of Article 21 [Late acceptances: response
by offeror];
go to Annotated Text of Article 22 [Withdrawal of acceptance];
go to Annotated Text of Article 23 [Effect of acceptance: time of conclusion of contract];
go to Annotated Text of Article 24 [When communication "reaches"
the addressee]
Words, phrases and concepts
Other Formation issues
Pace Law School Institute of
International Commercial Law
- Last updated June 9, 2011
Comments/Contributions
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