Interpretation of the Convention and Gap-Filling: Article 7
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Description
It is common knowledge that in order to create legal uniformity, it is insufficient merely to devise and enact uniform law instruments, because "even when outward uniformity is achieved..., uniform application of the agreed rules is by no means guaranteed, as in practice different countries almost inevitably come to put different interpretations upon the same enacted words". In order to reduce the risk of diverging applications of a single text, that text must also be interpreted uniformly, since, as stated by Viscount Simonds on behalf of the House of Lords in Scruttons Ltd. v. Midland Silicones Ltd., "it would be deplorable if the nations should, after protracted negotiations, reach agreement ... and that their several courts should then disagree as to the meaning of what they appeared to agree upon". The drafters of the CISG (as well as those of many other uniform law conventions, such as the 1980 Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to national Factoring and International Financial Leasing), were aware of this problem, which is why they inserted Article 7 into the Convention. This provision is designed to help reach the uniformity they aimed at. The relevant part of the provision states that in interpreting the CISG "regard is to be had to its international character and to the need to promote uniformity in its application and the observance of good faith in international trade". Article 7 is one of the CISG provisions most often addressed by commentators, since it deals not only with the interpretation of the CISG, but also with gap-filling.
Source Publication
The Draft UNCITRAL Digest and Beyond: Cases, Analysis and Unresolved Issues in the U.N. Sales Convention - Papers of the Pittsburgh Conference Organized by the Center of International Legal Education (CILE)
Source Editors/Authors
Franco Ferrari, Harry Flechtner, Ronald A. Brand
Publication Date
2004
Recommended Citation
Ferrari, Franco, "Interpretation of the Convention and Gap-Filling: Article 7" (2004). Faculty Chapters. 591.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/591
