The Study On The "Reasonable Time" In The Article 39(1) Of CISG

Article 39 of CISG claims: "The Buyer loses the right to rely on a lack of conformity of the goods if he dose not give notice to the seller specifying the nature of the lack of conformity within a reasonable time after he has discovered it or ought to have discovered it." " reasonable time " is a flexible term, and can prevent from the inequity of the case. But this kind of flexibility shouldn't destroy the unity of the convention. So the term " reasonable time" should have certain restriction so that it can have unified judgements in practice to article 39 (1). Because there are no unified legal explanation or usage at present, the understanding of article of 39 (1 ) and the application are various in practice.Though the theory and practical experience indicate that it seems unlikely to establish a regular time mechanism , and it's also unreasonable, but to set up the unified standard of reasonable time is necessary. The standard of " noble month " has offered the acceptable time mechanism for the laws of different countries, and the practices in Germany and Switzerland have verified it's feasibility. In addition, in the international practice, some other factors are often considered, for example: The seller's rational expectation of the notice period; Customs and usages of international trade that may influence the time mechanism, etc.