CISG를 적용한 최근 미국 판례에 관한 연구

This article reviewed how the CISG was recognized and applied by the U.S. courts in the cases for the last twenty two years. It seems very meaningful to review and analyze the cases of the US courts which represent the common law jurisprudence since the CISG is a creation made through the co-work of the civil law jurisprudence and common law jurisprudence in pursuit of a global uniform sales law. By viewing the increasing trend in the number of the CISG cases in the US and the provisions of the CISG specifically applied in such cases using statistical method in time series, the writer tried to assess, though not sufficient,how the CISG was practically recognized by the US lawyers and what were the issues in the cases. The writer found that the CISG were hardly recognized for the first ten years since it became effective in the US and recently the number of CISG cases are increasing rapidly. It reflects that the CISG is settling down in the US as a governing law in the area of international sale of goods despite the lack of recognition in the early stage. Through the early cases, it is found that the US courts did lack full understanding about the CISG. However, as time passes, with the increase in the volume of cases and the improvement in the quality of analyses in the CISG cases in the US, recently there are a lot of holdings in the cases the Korean lawyers would refer to. This article discussed the US courts’interpretation of the CISG and the logic in the process of making decisions in the cases where the primary issue was whether the CISG can be the governing law. The writer added some key notes on the recent case where a Korean company was a party, and such provisions of the CISG as to the applicability, formation of a contract were interpreted and applied in order to give the Korean lawyers a real-life flavor of the CISG case in the US. The writer hopes that this article would be a specific and practical reference to the Korean lawyers in their recognition, understanding, and application of the CISG considering that the CISG is still new in Korea and has been rarely applied by them though it has become already 6 years since Korean Congress ratified it.