국제물품매매계약에 관한 국제연합협약의 적용대상

United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (hereinafter called as 'CISG') applies to contracts of sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in different States: (a) When the States are Contracting States; or (b) When the rules of private international law lead to the application of the law of a Contracting State(Article 1). It applies to only a 'contract of sale of goods' whose character is 'international'. But it has no regulation that prescribes when such character must exist. The requirement of the international character must be satisfied at the conclusion of the contract because CISG adopted most of the provisions of the 1974 - Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods - which requires the international character to be met at the time of conclusion of the contract and because the UNCITRAL also requires the same requirement regarding the international character in the UNCITRAL Legal Guide on International Countertrade Transactions adopted by UNCITRAL on 12 May 1992. CISG applies not only to a contract of sale of goods only but also to a contract of sale of goods simultaneously having other forms of contracts such as lease, agency, distributorship etc. CISG does not define the concepts of 'goods' and 'places of business'. Therefore, it is necessary for such gap to be filled with other conventions' and/or states' provisions. With regard to filling such gap, the conventions concerning a sale of goods adopted by UNCITRAL must be considered preferentially, and the national law of the contracting states of CISG will be considered next.