Application of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods in Arbitration

Especially in the last decades we have witnessed an increase in the number of international business transactions. With the growth of international business transactions rises also the number of disputes arising from them. The parties to international business transactions often choose arbitration as a way of dispute resolution. Besides the growing number of international business transactions, there is also an effort to unify their legal regulation. One of the most successful results of these efforts is the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). If the preferred method of dispute resolution is arbitration, it is the arbitrators who will apply the CISG. Databases to the CISG show that the CISG is applied by both national courts and arbitrators. However, it is not entirely clear how the arbitrators apply the CISG. Do the arbitrators apply the CISG in the same way as national courts? The aim of this article is to analyze the application of the CISG in international commercial arbitration. First, the application of the CISG before national courts is briefly summarized. Next part focuses on the law applicable to the merits of the dispute before arbitrators in general. Then the various ways of application of the CISG before arbitrators are analyzed.