A presente tese evidencia o estado da arte da Teoria Jogos nas Relações Internacionais, e analisa estratégias de negociação decorrentes de processos decisórios no âmbito comercial. Ao delimitar - em tempo e espaço - a trajetória da Governança Mercantil Global, confere-se posição de destaque à Convenção de Viena de 1980 (CISG), regime dotado de ampla legitimidade, concebido sob a égide das Nações Unidas e recém ratificado pelo Brasil. A análise do referido processo de vinculação dá-se a partir de instrumentos metodológicos conferidos pela Teoria dos Jogos, culminado com a apresentação dos limites do modelo e de alternativas viáveis para seu desenvolvimento. / The present thesis sheds light on contemporary game theoretical approaches in International Relations, in particular as they pertain to the role of strategy setting in cross-border trade. The study of Global Trade Governance leads to questions of regime legitimacy, culminating with the adoption of the 1980 United Nations Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), recently ratified by Brazil. The analysis of the aforementioned ratification process validates the threshold of game theory as its stands today, and proposes, on the other hand, viable alternatives for the development of the model.

Dans le domaine du droit de la vente, on peut trouver beaucoup de règles qui sont limitées dans leur champ d’application ratione personae (par exemple aux seuls contrats Business to Consumer, B2C, ou aux contrats B2B). Ces différenciations sont souvent dues à des raisons historiques (par exemple la transposition de directives européennes en matière de droit de la consommation). Cependant, ces différenciations, qui compliquent les dispositions en matière du droit de la vente pour la jurisprudence ainsi que pour les utilisateurs et praticiens du droit, ne sont souvent pas justifiées par des raisons matérielles. La présente étude a l’objectif de trouver une réponse à la question quelles différenciations sont réellement utiles et dans quelles dispositions il est souhaitable de prévoir davantage une règle uniforme pour toutes les hypothèses ratione personae. A cette fin, le travail examine le droit de la vente français et allemand ainsi que des réglementations et principes européennes et internationaux (CVIM, DCEV, Principes UNIDROIT, CCR) et les analyse en se référant, outre que l’argumentation juridique, à la méthode fonctionnelle du droit comparé et à l’analyse économique du droit. / In sales law, there are many provisions that have limited personal scope of application, for instance special rules for so-called B2C (Business-to-Consumer) or B2B (Business-to-Business) contracts. Those personal differentiations, that make the application for judges, contracting parties as well as legal practitioners very complicated, are often due to historical reasons (for example the transposition of European Directives in the field of consumer law), but not justified by substantial arguments like differences between those personal categories.The present comparative study aims at finding out where these differentiations are useful and justified by substantial reasons and at what point it is preferable to provide a uniform rule for all personal configurations. In order to answer this question, this work examines the German and French sales law as well as European and international regulations and principles of soft law (CISG, CESL, UNIDROIT Principles, CFR) and analysis the rules using, apart from legal argumentation, the functional method of comparative law as well as the law and economics approach. / Insbesondere im Kaufrecht findet man immer wieder einzelne Vorschriften, Gesetzesabschnitte oder ganze Gesetzbücher mit eingeschränkten personalen Anwendungsbereichen (z.B. beschränkt auf Business to Consumer Verträge, B2C, oder auch auf B2B-Verträge. Jedoch scheint dieses komplizierte Netz aus personalen Differenzierungen keiner bestimmten Logik zu folgen und basiert häufig auf rein historischen Gründen (z.B. der Umsetzung von europäischen Verbraucherrichtlinien) oder auf beschränkter legislativer Kompetenz.Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht daher, an welcher Stelle derartige personal differenzierende Vorschriften tatsächlich durch materielle Gründe gerechtfertigt sind und wo es besser wäre, die Differenzierung zu beseitigen, um das Kaufrecht zu vereinfachen und für dessen Adressaten und Anwender zugänglicher zu machen. Somit richtet sich die Arbeit nicht nur an die Gesetzgeber, um die existierenden Regelungen zu vereinfachen, sondern auch an die Rechtsprechung und die Praxis. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen untersucht die Arbeit das deutsche und französische Kaufrecht sowie internationale und europäische Regelwerke (CISG, CESL, UNIDROIT-Principles, CFR). Dabei werden außer der juristischen Argumentation die funktionale Methode der Rechtsvergleichung und die Ökonomische Analyse des Rechts verwendet.

A presente tese evidencia o estado da arte da Teoria Jogos nas Relações Internacionais, e analisa estratégias de negociação decorrentes de processos decisórios no âmbito comercial. Ao delimitar - em tempo e espaço - a trajetória da Governança Mercantil Global, confere-se posição de destaque à Convenção de Viena de 1980 (CISG), regime dotado de ampla legitimidade, concebido sob a égide das Nações Unidas e recém ratificado pelo Brasil. A análise do referido processo de vinculação dá-se a partir de instrumentos metodológicos conferidos pela Teoria dos Jogos, culminado com a apresentação dos limites do modelo e de alternativas viáveis para seu desenvolvimento. / The present thesis sheds light on contemporary game theoretical approaches in International Relations, in particular as they pertain to the role of strategy setting in cross-border trade. The study of Global Trade Governance leads to questions of regime legitimacy, culminating with the adoption of the 1980 United Nations Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), recently ratified by Brazil. The analysis of the aforementioned ratification process validates the threshold of game theory as its stands today, and proposes, on the other hand, viable alternatives for the development of the model.

To regulate and facilitate are the main functions of legal rules. These purposes are achieved by a harmonised legal system by which the law becomes identical in numerous jurisdictions. The process to unify the law of sale internationally started in the 1920s and culminated, in 1988, in the implementation of the CISG. This Convention intends to provide clarity for most international sales transactions by regulating the formation of contracts, and the rights and obligations of the seller and the buyer resulting from the contract. The CISG has these days enjoyed much ratification and influenced a number of legislation reforms worldwide. Despite the role it played during the drafting process of the CISG, the DRC has not yet ratified it. Instead, the country continued to rely, until recently, on colonial legislations which had become out-dated, and inadequate to meet modern international sales contracts requirements. The situation appears to have been improved a year ago as the effect of the adoption of OHADA law whose Commercial Act is largely inspired by the CISG. Because the introduction of OHADA law in the DRC is very recent, this study intends to assess the current state of Congolese sales law by comparing it with the CISG and South African law, which is non-CISG but modernised. The comparative study aims at establishing whether current Congolese law, as amended by OHADA law, is sufficient or has shortcomings; if it has some, it aims to identify those shortcomings, and make suggestions for their improvements. After discussion, it has been discovered that the ratification of OHADA law has significantly improved Congolese domestic sales law. Given that there remain certain unresolved shortcomings in Congolese international sales law, however, the study ends by a proposal for the accession of the DRC to the CISG in order to fill them. / Mercantile Law / LLD

This thesis attempts to critically and comparatively analyse the doctrine of exemption/frustration /force majeure under the United Nations Convention on the Contract for International Sale of Goods (CISG) the UNIDRIOT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UNIDROIT) and the English Law. The doctrine of exemption/frustration/force majeure is very important in the area of contract and commercial law, it is a doctrine deeply rooted in fairness and allows a party to be excused from performing an obligation in a contract if at the conclusion of the contract an inhibition beyond the foreseeable control of the party happens to render the performance of the contract impossible. However, it is not easy to effectively streamline this doctrine and properly determine its applications. It has been observed in this thesis that, the doctrines of exemption/frustration /force majeure are not exactly the same; this thesis explores in details severally and jointly the various differences and similarities in the interpretations and applications of these impossibility doctrines. For instance, the open and flexible use of words in the definition of this doctrine under the CISG and the UNIDROIT Principles left much to be desired. Thus, it is one of the succinct arguments of this thesis that couching international law in loose words will work against the uniformity of application of this law, due to the different interpretations national law courts will be subjecting it to. This among other issues retarded the growth and development of the doctrine of exemption and force majeure. Furthermore, English law stance on the doctrine of frustration which can be gleaned from both the Sale of Goods Act of 1979 and the Common law are far from being adequate and need to be updated. This thesis therefore incisively laid bare the applications, interpretations and way forward for the doctrine of exemption/frustration/force majeure under the legal instruments of focus of this work. The thesis also comparatively compares the relationship between the doctrine of frustration/force majeure/exemption and other related doctrines like mistake, termination, avoidance, risk, and hardship. The thesis is concluded with a Draft Model Frustration Clause (DMFC) which is an attempt to rise above the status quo doctrine of frustration in the extant laws and develop a frustration clause that will be able to provide answers to the many flaws that trail these laws.

Electronic commerce from a private international law perspective The objective of this thesis is to study how the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is applied in the field of electronic commerce and compare it to the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts in regard to the prevailing tendency to remove legal barriers to electronic commerce. The comparison is made in terms of geographic and material scope, forms of contract and how contracts are formed. An analysis of conditions and obstacles to the application of the CISG within the field of electronic commerce represents the core of the work. The thesis is based on the assumption that the Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts is an instrument which helps to overcome identified obstacles. The thesis formulates a conclusion on overcoming just one of the obstacles on the basis of the principle of technological neutrality, and it further demonstrates that the requirement of being in written form may remain an obstacle. As such, the thesis is a response to the question of why the Convention is signed and ratified by a relatively small number of states.

To regulate and facilitate are the main functions of legal rules. These purposes are achieved by a harmonised legal system by which the law becomes identical in numerous jurisdictions. The process to unify the law of sale internationally started in the 1920s and culminated, in 1988, in the implementation of the CISG. This Convention intends to provide clarity for most international sales transactions by regulating the formation of contracts, and the rights and obligations of the seller and the buyer resulting from the contract. The CISG has these days enjoyed much ratification and influenced a number of legislation reforms worldwide. Despite the role it played during the drafting process of the CISG, the DRC has not yet ratified it. Instead, the country continued to rely, until recently, on colonial legislations which had become out-dated, and inadequate to meet modern international sales contracts requirements. The situation appears to have been improved a year ago as the effect of the adoption of OHADA law whose Commercial Act is largely inspired by the CISG. Because the introduction of OHADA law in the DRC is very recent, this study intends to assess the current state of Congolese sales law by comparing it with the CISG and South African law, which is non-CISG but modernised. The comparative study aims at establishing whether current Congolese law, as amended by OHADA law, is sufficient or has shortcomings; if it has some, it aims to identify those shortcomings, and make suggestions for their improvements. After discussion, it has been discovered that the ratification of OHADA law has significantly improved Congolese domestic sales law. Given that there remain certain unresolved shortcomings in Congolese international sales law, however, the study ends by a proposal for the accession of the DRC to the CISG in order to fill them. / Mercantile Law / LL. D.

Les relations commerciales avec la Chine s’intensifiant, la conclusion de contrats internationaux est de plus en plus fréquente pour les opérateurs économiques étrangers et chinois. En vertu du principe de la liberté contractuelle, les parties à un contrat international peuvent choisir une loi applicable à leur contrat afin de bénéficier de plus de souplesse, de sécurité juridique ou de neutralité. Cette étude basée notamment sur les actualités juridiques chinoises a pour objectif de donner une référence pratique sur la réglementation des contrats internationaux en Chine à travers la présentation des principes généraux du contrat international chinois, la conclusion, l’exécution et les difficultés d’application des contrats internationaux. Il y est aussi analysé l’application de la Convention des Nations Unies sur les contrats de vente internationale de marchandises, ainsi que certains cas de refus de reconnaissance et d’exécution de sentences étrangères en Chine. En traitant exclusivement des contrats internationaux en matière de commerce international, cette étude pourra offrir aux investisseurs étrangers désirant investir en Chine une vision relativement complète sur l’actualité de la réglementation des contrats internationaux en Chine et ainsi permettre aux parties de bien choisir la loi qui devra régir leurs rapports contractuels envisagés afin de réaliser leurs intérêts et d’éviter les mauvaises surprises liées à la méconnaissance des lois et des règlements chinois en vigueur. / China’s economy has grown significantly during the past thirty years under a policy of socialist market economy. For the purposes of international trade, Chinese international contract law makes reference to western law, while maintaining distinctive features stemming from political influence and Chinese culture. As trade relations with China intensify, foreign and Chinese economic entities are entering into an increasing number of international contracts. In accordance with the principle of contractual freedom, parties to an international contract may choose which law will govern their contract, so as to enjoy a greater degree of flexibility, legal safety or neutrality. This study, based mainly on Chinese legal developments, aims to provide a practical reference on the regulation of international contracts in China by presenting the general principles of international Chinese contracts, and the negotiation and execution of international contracts, as well as difficulties related to their application. It also analyses the manner in which the United Nations Convention applies to international sale of goods contracts, as well as certain cases of refusal to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards in China. By dealing exclusively with international contracts related to international trade, this study will provide foreign investors wishing to invest in China with a comprehensive picture of the current regulation of international contracts in China and will allow the parties to choose which law to govern their contractual relationships in order to achieve their objectives and avoid any unpleasant surprises resulting from their lack of awareness of current Chinese laws and regulations.

No description available.

The aim of the thesis was to critically compare termination of contracts in South Africa, England and the CISG. It was found out that South Africa prefers to use the term cancellation because it is a remedy of last resort. The problem with cancellation is that is a drastic step of bringing the transaction to an abrupt and premature end, which is only used when a material breach occurs. English law uses the term discharge as it refers to the ending of the obligations under the contract when a breach occurred and represents the point at which one party is no longer bound by its’ contractual obligations and claims damages. Chapter 3 argued that though discharge goes beyond cancellation it does not cater for diverse domestic rules which need uniform international laws. Chapter 4 discussed and argued that avoidance is a term that was chosen by the CISG to end a contract when a fundamental breach occurs. There were problems on interpretation of terms and use of diverse domestic rules. The advantage of the term avoidance is that it is a technical term adopted and given a uniform meaning in the CISG where interpretation of terms and diverse domestic rules did not apply. Avoidance furthermore comprised concepts of rescission and termination. From the above it was argued that South Africa needs to develop new terms for termination of a contract and create new laws along the lines of the CISG. / Private Law / LL. M.