Singapore Plays Host to the 35th CISG

This year marks the 35^th year of the passage of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). With 83 signatories and counting, including almost all of the world’s major trading nations, it is one of the most successful multilateral treaties to-date. The CISG holds some significance for Singapore, not the least as it is the only ASEAN member state to have acceded, but also because it chaired the diplomatic conference this year, at the invitation of its custodian, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

The conference was organised by SMU School of Law’s Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia (CEBCLA), in cooperation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Law, the Singapore Academy of Law and National University of Singapore’s Centre for Business Law.

The two-day event, held at SMU’s Mochtar Riady Auditorium on 23 and 24 April 2015, was a showcase of who’s who in the Singapore legal fraternity and international commercial law and featured keynote addresses by the Attorney-General VK Rajah, the Solicitor-General Lionel Yee, Dean of SMU School of Law Professor Yeo Tiong Min, and the head of UNCITRAL’s Regional Centre Joao Ribeiro.

A public lecture on the prospect of harmonisation of commercial laws in the ASEAN region was eloquently advanced by Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore, and summed up with a vote of thanks by the Secretary of UNCITRAL, Renaud Sorieul, to cap off the lively proceedings of the first day. This provided a neat transition between the reflection on the past 35 years of the CISG in operation on the first day, and the anticipation of the next phase of the CISG.

The speakers presented on a wide variety of topics – from  the use of the CISG in arbitration, whether it was suited to all types of sales transactions, to national perspectives on its adoption or use as a model for law reform. Several delegates from ASEAN even intimated that they were either actively considering accession to the CISG or drafting legislation to give it the force of law in their respective countries, echoing calls from a number of presenters who suggested using the CISG as a model for greater integration of commercial laws in the South-East Asian grouping. The conference concluded on a positive note with many looking forward to celebrating the CISG’s golden anniversary in the next 15 years.

The conference was well-received, with about 300 participants in attendance from the legal fraternity, policy-makers from the Asia-Pacific region, ASEAN government delegates, and academics from Europe, the Far East and Australia.