A Study On The Application Of The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods In Hong Kong

The United Nations Convention on Sales Contracts for the International Sale of Goods(hereinafter referred to as CISG)has been widely used in the settlement of transnational goods trade disputes since it came into force.It fully and effectively adjusts the contractual relationship of international goods sales,and is the main legal basis in the field of international goods.Given Hong Kong's special legal status,we cannot avoid the question whether CISG can be applied in Hong Kong.Although my Government sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1997,the note did not effectively address the issue,nor did it subsequently make a clear statement.In practice,CISG often appears in the contracts between Hong Kong parties and parties from other countries,but the application results are not consistent,which leads to the ambiguous application of CISG in the settlement of international trade disputes in goods,and affects the vigorous development of Hong Kong's international trade.The application of CISG in Hong Kong has a long history,with a profound and complex historical origin.Before Hong Kong's return,the UK was not a contracting party of CISG,so Hong Kong,as a non-sovereign jurisdiction,could not apply the Convention to deal with disputes.Nor has the central government made a definitive statement on the application of the law since Hong Kong returned to China.As a result,the judges are now divided.There are mainly two kinds of attitudes in the international community towards this issue.One kind,represented by the United States and others,is in favor of it.They believe that China is a contracting party of CISG and Hong Kong is a part of China,so it can apply the Convention.The other opposition,represented by France and others,believed that CISG did not appear in the treaty list,and the central government had not made a clear statement on the application of the convention in Hong Kong,so Hong Kong could not apply the convention.In this paper,the application of CISG in Hong Kong is divided into two issues,that is,the application of the Convention between Hong Kong and the mainland and the application between Hong Kong and other countries or regions.For the first question,the academic community basically has a unified view that Hong Kong,as a special administrative division of China,does not have the qualification of subject of international law,and the disputes of goods sales contract between Hong Kong and the mainland cannot be solved by CISG.For the second question,the author thinks it can be applied.First of all,Hong Kong is a part of China's territorial sovereignty from the very beginning.In addition,Hong Kong complies with the provisions of the Convention on territorial units,and China has not made any negative declaration so far.The Convention should be applicable to all territorial areas,so CISG can be applied between Hong Kong and other countries.If CISG is applied in Hong Kong,then there will be two problems.One is the way in which the Convention is applied,directly or by transformation.The second is the reservation to the Convention,whether the reservation made by the central government to the CISG at the beginning is also valid in Hong Kong.At present,it is believed that the application of CISG in Hong Kong can only be carried out through transformation.In addition,as for the validity of reservation,it is not suitable to be extended to Hong Kong based on the analysis of relevant principles and trading habits of Hong Kong.