The CISG’s Internat？onal Sphere of Appl？cation, Party Autonomy and Some Interpretation Problems

The CISG is a treaty that aims to unify substantial law in international sales contracts. It regulates its own application sphere. According to these regulation, the CISG is applied to international sales contracts between parties whose business places are in different contracting states. In addition to this method of application, CISG can be applied to international sales contracts between parties in which at least one of the parties’ business place is not in a contracting state, through the reference of the forums’ conflict of laws rules to the law of a contracting state. The contracting states could make a reservation to the application of the CISG through this second method. The parties could also prevent the application of the CISG totally or partially based on the party autonomy that is provided to them by the CISG. This could be done through an explicit provision in the contract or through choice of the law of a non-contracting state. In this article, interpretation of the CISG provisions that regulates the application of the CISG through the conflict of laws rules of the forum and the effect of the reservation of the states to this kind of application, which has been subject to extensive doctrinal discussion, is analysed in detail. Prevantion of the CISG’s application based on the party autonomy provided to contracting parties by the CISG is also analysed in detail