Library Guides: Conflict of Laws: International Organizations

UNCITRAL

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has drafted a number of significant instruments that advance the unification of PIL:

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980)
The CISG convention was signed in Vienna in 1980, and has become one of the most successful uniform laws. It has been ratified by 79 countries that control a significant portion of world trade. It allows exporters to avoid choice of law issues, and provides a set of substantive rules that apply to transactions between parties of different contracting states.
The Convention on the Enforcement and Recognition of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958)
The "New York" convention provides common standards for the recognition of arbitration agreements and court recognition and enforcement of foreign and non-domestic arbitral awards
The Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (1985)
This model legislation covers all stages of the arbitration process from the arbitration agreement, the composition and jurisdiction of the arbitration tribunal to award recognition and enforcement.
The Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996)
The MLEC aims to facilitate commerce by providing a set of internationally acceptable rules providing equal treatment to paper-based and electronic information.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law

The Hague Conference was formed in 1893 with the goal of promoting unification of private international principles. It has created and assisted with the implementation of a number of multilateral treaties, in diverse subject areas under these broad categories:

Protection of children, family and property - including the topics of adoption, child abduction, enforcement of child support obligations, marriage, divorce, and trusts and estates.
International Legal Cooperation and Litigation - civil procedure, choice of court agreements, enforcement of judgments.
International Commercial and Finance Law - agency, securities, sales, product liability.

There are 74 members of the Hague Conference on PIL, including the United States, Brazil, Russia, India, China and all member states of the European Union and the European Union itself. The status chart shows a list of the 39 treaties that have been developed, along with the status of ratification by various members.

UNIDROIT

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), was founded in 1926 under the auspices of the League of Nations, and continues today as an intergovermental organization with heaquarters in Rome. It counts 63 nation-states in its membership, with a mission of facilitating the coordination of private law, particularly commercial law, between the member states. UNIDROIT has drafted a number of conventions and model laws, including the following:

Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure
Prepared by UNIDROIT in conjunction with the American Legal Institute (ALI), these principles address a wide range of topics including jurisdiction, notice and recognition of judgment.
Principles of International Commercial Contracts
Often called the international Restatement of Contracts, this text is not binding in nature, but reflects commonly accepted rules regarding international contracts for goods and services. It provides interpretation of some CISG principles, along with addressing issues not within the scope of the CISG, including those pertaining to contracts for services.
The Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects
This treaty aims to protect cultural property, and reduce illegal traffic by obligating buyers to check the legitimacy of their purchase.