Abstract

India is among those few countries which despite having participated in the 1980 Vienna Convention did not ratify the Vienna Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG, 1980). Sale of goods transactions in India are primarily governed by Sale of Goods Act, 1930 and Indian Contract Act, 1872. Some Commentators have poignantly said that these two are one of the finest legislations relating to commercial transactions that a country could have. However, as these laws are not very recent and by no stretch of imagination it can be argued that these laws in all sense incorporate the new ‘Lex Mercatoria’ that has been developing since these laws came into being. Albeit, it must be stressed that these two legislations are one perfect pieces of legislations but they might still lack the conformity with the new standards in the context of International sales transactions. Also, beyond any shadow of doubt, these laws do hold water even in the present era of modern Lex Mercatoria as the basic principles have strengthened over a period of time. So there might be a lot of similarities in both the regimes. But then, there are certain differences as well. And in the light of the whole debate as to whether India should ratify the CISG or not, it becomes pertinent to examine and highlight these differences and similarities and propose a feasible solution to the debate. The present paper focuses on this issue especially in the context of ‘delivery’, ‘time’ and ‘risk’ in International Sales.

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