INTRODUCTION

Article 9 CISG is located in Chapter II, entitled “General Provisions,” of the Convention. The other provisions of the Convention included in that chapter deal with general matters, such as the interpretation of the Convention (Art. 7) and the conduct of the parties (Art. 8)

Similarly, in the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Art. 1.8, which has a similar structure to that of Art. 9 CISG, is located in Chapter 1, entitled “General Provisions.” Included in that chapter are similar references to rules of interpretation sources.

Thus, it may be said that the recognition of the normative value of international usages and practices in contracts of international trade is a characteristic common to these two instruments of international commercial law.

NORMATIVE VALUE OF USAGES AND PRACTICES

Art. 9, paragraph (1), of the Convention recognizes the normative value of usages by pointing out that “[t]he parties to a contract are bound by any usage to which they have agreed and by any practices which they have established between themselves.”

Furthermore, Art. 9, paragraph (2), provides that “[t]he parties are considered, unless otherwise agreed, to have impliedly made applicable to their contract or its formation a usage of which the parties knew or ought to have known and which in international trade is widely known to, and regularly observed by, parties to contracts of the type involved in the particular trade concerned.”