When the dramatic change between the business yesterday and the business today is taken into consideration, it is clearly seen that each step taken towards achieving a unified codification on the international business law is of paramount importance in terms of providing parties a neutral, familiar and most importantly efficient legal infrastructure.
29 March 2016
By Fatma Esra Güzeloğlu
Today, unifying of business laws
on a transnational level has become an essential necessity rather than a mere
objective when due regard is given to the immense growth in the international
business transactions, with players spread all around the world. Just to
illustrate the enormity of the increase in the volume of international
dealings; one may take Turkey as an example where the statistics reveal that
the volume of foreign trade has grown significantly over the last decades. Such
that, the amount of foreign trade which was only around $ 137.5 Million USD in 1923 has grown into almost $ 11 Billion USD in 1980. Said number had continued to vastly escalate;
adding up to around $ 35 Billion USD in 1990 and to almost $ 400 Billion USD in 2014. The numbers expose the truth: the world of business
has never been as rapidly-growing and international as it is today. Hence, it
was questionable, whether or not; the laws have been able to catch up with that
speed and internationalism.
Indeed in the 19th
century, the present conflict of laws methods were inadequate to tackle complex
issues born out of international sale of goods contracts. Additionally, large
number of national systems, at that time, presented obsoleteness,
incompleteness and inadequacy to address international business dealings, as
they were designed to govern pre-industrial economy and not the “new emerging economy and commercial traffic
based on the sale of complex manufactured industrial goods that needed to be
transported to distant places, that resort to also to ancillary transactions
such as financing payment arrangements, insurance, transport contracts and
guarantees”.
When the dramatic change between
the business yesterday and the business today is taken into consideration, it
is clearly seen that each step taken towards achieving a unified codification
on the international business law is of paramount importance in terms of providing
parties a neutral, familiar and most importantly efficient legal infrastructure
where they can safely carry out their transactions. In such a legal
environment, business people can find the opportunity to focus on the business
itself, instead of losing unnecessary amount of time trying to find an
effective legal framework according to which both parties can feel confident to
do business. Exactly this goal in mind, the CISG was put in action. [7]
Today the CISG enjoys a
significant amount of recognition and success. According to the World Trade
Organization (hereinafter “WTO”) statistics, the world’s top six merchandise trader countries;
USA, China, Germany, Japan, France and Netherlands, are all Signatories to the
CISG; together with 77 other nations including Turkey; which embodies over two thirds of international
trade in goods, representing a significant economic, geographic and cultural
diversity.
[5]
Turkish Statistical Institution. “Foreign
Trade Statistics Table by Years” retrieved on 10 October 2015 from:
http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/PreTablo.do?alt_id=1046.
KRÖLL, S., MISTELIS, L. &
VISCASILLAS, “Introduction
to the CISG”. In UN Convention on
Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG): Commentary, München,
C.H. Beck, 2011, p. 2.
[7]
The CISG was unanimously approved on April 11, 1980, at a diplomatic conference
held in Vienna with the attendance of sixty-two States.
[8]
World Trade Organization International Trade Statistics 2014, retrieved on
October 11, 2015 from:
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2014_e/its14_highlights1_e.pdf