Drafting Contracts Under the CISG

Drafting Contracts Under the CISG is a 500-page reference that provides model language to be included in a contract that is governed by the CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods), as well as contextual analysis that will aid the drafter in tailoring clauses, for specific needs. Case law is also considered. CISG is a matter of increasing importance, as evidenced by (and as a result of) several thousand available court and arbitration decisions world-wide applying the CISG. Despite the widespread default application of the CISG when parties to a private sale of goods transaction fail to select a governing law, there exists no adequate reference tool where CISG is the affirmative choice as the law governing an international sales contract. This publication contains original contributions by the most noted and eminent scholars on the CISG from around the world. The list of contributors is a who's who of the most widely-published CISG scholars.

Harry M. Flechtner, Editor
Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Harry M. Flechtner is professor of international and domestic commercial law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 1984 after three years of private law practice in Washington, D.C. He is the first four-time recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Student Bar Association at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, and he has received the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pittsburgh. He has authored a variety of books, articles and chapters on commercial law topics, with special emphasis on international sales law, and has been cited by the Solicitor General of the United States as one of the leading academic authorities on the [United Nations Sales] Convention. He received his J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, an M.A. in English and American Language and Literature from Harvard University, and an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard College.

Professor Flechtner is one of two National Correspondents for the United States to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and was one of five experts appointed by UNCITRAL to prepare the initial draft of the UNCITRAL Digest of Case Law on the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. He co-organized, with Professor Brand, three major symposia on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

Ronald A. Brand, Editor
Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Legal Education, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Ronald A. Brand is Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Legal Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska and his J.D. from Cornell Law School. He regularly teaches courses in International Business Transactions, International Trade Law, and Transnational Litigation, as well as an Introduction to American Law course for foreign law students. His books include Fundamentals of International Business Transactions (Kluwer International Publishers 2000), International Civil Dispute Resolution (with Baldwin, Epstein, and Gordon; West 2004), Beyond the Draft UNCITRAL Digest (with Ferrari and Flechtner; Sellier 2004), and Private Law, Private International Law, & Judicial Cooperation in the EU-US Relationship, (West 2005). Professor Brand was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Special Commission and Diplomatic Conference of The Hague Conference on Private International Law that concluded the 2005 Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. He is a past-Chairperson of the Interest Group on International Economic Law of the American Society of International Law, a former Fulbright Scholar in Belgium, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna. Professor Brand has been the organizer of four major symposia on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
Mark S. Walter, Editor
Chief of Party, USAID Doha WTO Accession Project
Mark S. Walter currently heads the U.S. Agency for International Development Doha Project for WTO Accession in Ethiopia, a project implemented by Booz, Allen Hamilton. Mr. Walter is a trade lawyer with experience in ten different countries implementing and leading legal education and capacity building programs with a focus on international commercial law. He has served as Assistant Director for the Center for International Legal Education at the University of Pittsburgh, as an Adjunct Professor of Law and as International legal consultant specializing in contract law. Mr. Walter has extensive experience working with nascent legal communities in complying with international agreements and sharing lessons learned from around the world. His experience developing commercial law and international legal education reform programs includes extensive work in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Serbia, and Kosovo. Most recently, he participated in a USAID sponsored Commercial, Legal, Institutional Reform and Trade Assessment of Ethiopia, designed to guide government and donors in interventions that support the enabling environment for economic growth.

EMINENT CONTRIBUTORS:

The list of contributors is a who's who of the most eminent CISG scholars:

Volker Behr, University of Augsburg School of Law
Michael Bridge, University College London School of Law
V. Susanne Cooke, Cohen & Grigsby, PC
Vivian Grosswald Curran, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Johan Erauw, University of Ghent School of Law
Franco Ferrari, University of Verona School of Law
Alejandro M. Garro, Columbia Law School
Henry Deeb Gabriel, Loyola University of New Orleans School of Law
Kenneth Lehn, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh
Joseph Lookofsky, University of Copenhagen, School of Law
Ulrich Magnus, University of Hamburg School of Law
John E. Murray, Jr., Duquesne University School of Law
Alejandro Osuna-Gonzalez, Iberoamericana University
Pilar Perales Viscasillas, University Carlos III of Madrid School of Law
Sandra Saiegh, United Nations Procurement Service
Peter H. Schlechtriem, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Jernej Sekolec, Secretary, UNCITRAL
Marco Torsello, University of Bologna School of Law
Michael P. Van Alstine, University of Maryland School of Law