1980 (in force 1988) · Uniform laws and model principles
UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
International
A treaty that sets one set of rules for sales of goods between businesses in different countries, drafted by lawyers from common-law, civil-law and socialist systems.
Why it matters
It is a rare example of the two great traditions agreeing on a text. It has been used as a model by countries that reformed their own contract law.
Built on
No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.
Went on to shape
1994
UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts
International
built on the sales convention and extended it to contracts in general
1999
Contract Law of the People's Republic of China
China
followed the sales convention's rules on formation and breach
2002
German reform of the law of obligations (Schuldrechtsmodernisierung)
Germany
took over concepts from the sales convention
Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 5 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.
TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.
