Does the CISG require the common law judge to abandon the doctrine of stare decisis?
Conclusion: No Need for an International Stare Decisis in Order to have a Uniform Interpretation INTRODUCTION The very goal of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is the uniformisation of many of the rules relating to the international sale of goods. The CISG created a uniform law (lex) through a uniform text but as we know, the same text may be interpreted in different ways, thus leading to a lack of infinity in law (ius). Ever since the nationalisation of the law through national codifications in civil law jurisdictions and the concept of stare decisis (domestic-only binding authority) in common law jurisdictions, many judges have lost the once common habit of looking beyond one’s own jurisdiction to find the law. It was once common on the European continent to look at the ius commune and the lex mercatoria (and their foreign interpretations) as legitimate extra-jurisdictional sources of law. Though most often not technically binding,
