Sale of goods remains one of the central disciplines of commercial law and international sale of goods is the main channel through which international trade is conducted.
English law plays an important role in governing international sales transactions, primarily in such sectors as trade in commodities however there are other popular systems of sales law and there have been increasingly successful projects of legal harmonisation in this field. The module will therefore adopt a comparative approach as well as exploring the major international sales law instruments such as the United Nations Convention on International Sales of Goods (CISG) and the PICC and soft law instruments such as INCOTERMS.
The proposed module will comprise some of the central aspects of the law of international sale of goods. It will begin by discussing the justifications of international trade and peculiarities of structures, organisations and workings of commodities markets.
The module will then address the relevance of general contract law to sales law and the relationship between the two areas of law. The remaining part of the module will focus on the issues peculiar to international sales, such as: the definition of a contract of international sale of goods; main types of sales contracts such CIF and FOB contracts; the role and function of bill of lading and other documents; passage of property and risk; export and import licences; remedies for breach of contract; impossibility of performance.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of principles and rules of United Nations Convention on International Sales of Goods (CISG) (which is part of many civil law systems) and English common law relating to international sales contracts as well as an understanding of alternative and international approaches;
Demonstrate an understanding of relevant sources of law containing those principles and rules including international legal instruments and soft law instruments;
Equipped with the skill to conduct comparative analysis of laws;
Apply the law to diverse sets of facts;
Articulate and analyse values and policies underlying various rules and principles of both English law of international sales and United Nations Convention on International Sales of Goods (CISG);
Demonstrate an understanding of principles and rules governing CIF and FOB contracts that function under various legal regimes including, for example, the UK and the UAE.
