What’s CISG Got to Do with It? – Applicability of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods to Arbitration Agreements

Arbitration agreements are among the most complex agreements in international law. They allow the parties to a certain contract to settle their potential dispute outside of national courts. However, although they are of a procedural nature, they are only contracts. In this paper, the question of whether the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) applies to arbitration agreements will be analysed. We will discuss the scope of the CISG and the interpretation of the CISG regarding this issue. Following will be the examination of the recent developments in case law and scholarly writing which dealt with this matter. Finally, we will offer our view of how the CISG governs arbitration agreements and which aspects of arbitration agreements are impacted.