국제물품매매협약(CISG)을 적용한 우리 판결의 소개와 검토

As of March 1, 2005 the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (“CISG”) adopted by the United Nations in 1980 has become part of Korean law. Korea’s accession to CISG constitutes an epoch making event for the internationalization of the private law of Korea. As far as the author understands, up until December 31, 2010 thirteen decisions rendered by lower courts of Korea have applied CISG. In this article the author makes brief reports on those decisions and makes brief comments thereon. The analyses show that korean courts understand CISG relatively well and their decisions are generally persuasive. Having said that, some decisions leave room for further improvement. The author expects that the cases based upon CISG will increase in the near future, and hence urges Korean lawyers to make efforts to better understand CISG and apply CISG more correctly. It should also be stressed that in order to correctly understand the rights and obligations of the parties to a sales contract governed by CISG, Korean courts should not only have a good grip on CISG but also the law applicable to a sales contract which supplements CISG. A typical example is the rate applicable to the interest which a party who fails to pay the price or any other sum that is in arrears has to pay to the other party. Since CISG is silent on the applicable interest rate, the Korean courts have to decide how to set the interest rate. If they decide that there are no general principles on which CISG is based, then they have to apply the law which is applicable to the sales contract by virtue of the rules of private international law of Korea.