Welcome to the CISG Advisory Council (CISG-AC)

Scope and Aims

The CISG-AC is a private initiative which aims at promoting a uniform interpretation of the CISG. It is a private initiative in the sense that its members do not represent countries or legal cultures, but they are scholars who look beyond the cooking pot for ideas and for a more profound understanding of issues relating to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11 April 1980 (CISG).

The CISG Advisory Council was founded on the initiative of the inspirational late Prof Albert Kritzer of the Institute of International Commercial Law in 2001. Prof Kritzer was at the forefront of the promotion of the harmonization of international commercial law with initiates like the CISG Advisory Council, the Institute's database on the CISG and the Willem C Vis Moot.

Internationality and Uniformity

As an independent body of experts, the group is afforded the luxury of being critical of judicial or arbitral decision and of addressing issues not dealt with previously by adjudicating bodies. The Council is guided by the mandate of Article 7 of the Convention as far as its interpretation and application are concerned: the paramount regard to international character of the Convention and the need to promote uniformity.

In line with its objectives, the CISG Advisory Council is also committed to the multinational and multi-lingual character of the CISG. Accordingly the opinions of the Council is being made available in all six of the official languages of the CISG as well as a number of other prominent trade languages. In this the Council is well served by the international composition of its members.

Mode of Operation

In practical terms, the primary purpose of the CISG-AC is to issue opinions relating to the interpretation and application of the Convention on request or on its own initiative. Requests may be submitted to the CISG-AC, in particular, by international organizations, professional associations and adjudication bodies.

Observer Status at UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT

On 10 September 2012 the CISG-AC was granted observer status by UNCITRAL. This  enables the CISG-AC to attend meetings of UNCITRAL and its working groups.

On 4 February 2015 the CISG-AC was granted observer status at the Governing Council of UNIDROIT. This  enables the CISG-AC to attend meetings of UNIDROIT.

New Member

Prof Sieg Eiselen of the University of South Africa has recently been elected to the CISG Advisory Council. He has been the Secretary of the Council since 2007. He was the Rapporteur for CISG Advisory Council Opinion No 13 Inclusion of Standard Terms under the CISG.
His fields of expertise include international sales law, international commercial law harmonization and ecommerce law. He is co-author with Albert Kritzer and Vikki Rogers of Volumes IV and V of the International Contract Manual (Thomson West).

New Secretary


      Council is also happy to announce the appointment of a
      new secretary to replace Sieg Eiselen after his election as
      member of the Council. Ass Prof Dr Milena Djordjević is
      well-established in CISG circles. She is the Director of
      Center for Legal Skills and an Assistant Professor at the
      University of Belgrade Faculty of Law where she teaches
      International Commercial Law, International Commercial
      Arbitration, Foreign Investment Law, EU Trade Policy and
      Legal English. Milena has published extensively on the
      CISG, arbitration,  WTO law and EU trade law.

She also coached Belgrade moot team for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for the past seventeen years and is the organizer of the Belgrade Open Pre-Moot and Belgrade Arbitration Conference.

She is a member of: the ICC Court of Arbitration, ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, ICC Central and Eastern European Arbitration Group, Supervisory Board of Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge, Board of Serbian Arbitration Association, Board of Serbian Association of Commercial Lawyers and she is a national CLOUT correspondent to UNCITRAL for Serbia.

* New Opinions, Declarations and
   Translations

  •  The CISG Advisory Council adopted the Black Letter Rules for Opinion No 18 “Set-off",
         rapporteur Professor Christiana Fountoulakis, at its 24th Meeting in Antigua Guatemala,
         during February 2018. The Opinion has now been published.
  •  The CISG Advisory Council adopted the Black Letter Rules for Opinion No 19
         "Conformity of        Goods and Public Law Regulations", rapporteur  Prof Djakhongir
           Saidov,     at its 25th Meeting in     Aalborg Denmark, during November 2018. This Opinion
           has now been published.
  • The CISG Advisory Council adopted the Black Letter Rules for Opinion No 20
        "Applicability of the CISG to Dispute Settlement Clauses", rapporteur Prof Jan
        Kleinheisterkamp,      at its 25th Meeting in Aalborg Denmark, during November 2018. The
        Opinion will be published after finalization of the Comments.

* New case law

Belgium

Volz v Groep Jam Hof van Beroep Antwerpen (Court of Appeal Antwerp) Case no 2013-AR/299 of 9 February  2015
Opinion no 13
Case  excerpt (Dutch)

Next CISG Advisory Council Meetings

  •  The 27th CISG Advisory Council Meeting is scheduled to take place from 2-5 February 2020 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico hosted by the Law School of the Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara. A CISG conference, organized by the same Law School will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico on 6 February 2020, in conjunction with this meeting.
    The theme of the conference is '5th Conference on International Arbitration and the UN Convention for the International Sale of Goods --  Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Enactment of the CISG'.    . For more information please contact Edgardo Muñoz López at [email]. The provisional program is available at PROGRAM. 
  • The 28th CISG Advisory Council meeting will take place in Zenica, Bosnia hosted by the Law School of the University of Zenica. Contact person: Ms Nevena Jevromovic at [email].