The Interpretation of UNCITRAL Law in Australian Courts: A Roadmap for Elevating the UN Sales Convention’s Status to That of Arbitration Law

Despite being part of Australian law for more than 30 years, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) has not secured the internationally minded interpretation that CISG art 7(1) requires. Australia’s international commercial arbitration (‘ICA’) laws, however, are routinely approached by Australian courts with an internationalist perspective, as their own interpretative rules require. It is tempting to conclude that Australia’s approach to interpreting its ICA laws is transferable to the CISG context. In this article I address a previously unexplored nuance affecting that conclusion. Australian courts routinely accept Singaporean, Hong Kong and New Zealand interpretative influence concerning ICA laws. In the CISG context, however, significantly less influence from those jurisdictions exists. That being so, I explore how Australia’s courts might better apply the CISG in an internationalist manner. First, I recommend that Australia’s courts emphasise to practitioners the need to consider the CISG’s application and its internationalist interpretation requirements. Second, I recommend that Australian courts use the amicus curiae procedure to solicit third party submissions addressing the CISG’s interpretation. Both techniques are applied by foreign courts in the ICA context and would assist Australian courts in discharging their CISG art 7(1) obligations.