<p>The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 1980 (CISG) seeks to provide a standard uniform law for international sales contracts. This research paper analyses the rationale behind South Africa&rsquo / s delay in deciding whether to ratify the CISG, and its possible effect on trade with other nations. The CISG drafters hoped that uniformity would&nbsp / remove barriers to international sales thereby facilitating international trade. Ratification of the convention is only the beginning of uniformity / uniformity must then be extended to its application&nbsp / and interpretation. Not all countries have ratified the Convention yet they engage in international trade in goods: this state of affairs presents challenges since traders have to choose a national&nbsp / law that applies to their contract where CISG does not apply. This takes traders back to the undesirable pre-CISG era. On the other hand, those States that have ratified the convention face&nbsp / different challenges, the biggest one being a lack of uniformity in its interpretation. The problem of differing interpretations arises because some CISG Articles are vague leading to varied&nbsp / interpretations by national courts. Further, the CISG is still largely misunderstood and some traders from States that have ratified CISG exclude it from application. South Africa can only ratify an&nbsp / international instrument such as the CISG, after it has been tabled before Parliament, and debated upon in accordance with the Constitution. CISG&rsquo / s shortcomings, particularly regarding&nbsp / interpretation, make it far from certain that CISG would pass the rigorous&nbsp / legislative process. Nonetheless, the Constitution of South Africa requires the South African courts and legislature to promote principles of international law. The paper, therefore, examines, whether the Legislature has a constitutional obligation to ratify CISG. South Africa&rsquo / s membership of the WTO requires&nbsp / that it promote international trade by removing trade barriers. It is, therefore, vital for South Africa to be seen to be actively facilitating international trade. Even though the trade benefits which&nbsp / flow from ratification are not always visible in States that have ratified the CISG, there is some doubt whether South Africa can sustain its trade relations without ratifying the CISG. The paper shows that the formation&nbsp / of contracts under the South African common law is very similar to formation as set out under Part II of the CISG and if the CISG were to be adopted in South Africa, no major changes would be&nbsp / needed in this regard. International commercial&nbsp / principles as an alternative to the CISG still require a domestic law to govern the contract and would, therefore, leave South African traders in the&nbsp / same position they are in currently, where their trading relations are often governed by foreign laws. Ratifying CISG would certainly simplify contract negotiations particularly with regard to&nbsp / governing law provisions. Overall the advantages of ratification for South Africa far outweigh the shortcomings of the CISG, and ratification will assist in ensuring that South African traders get an&nbsp / opportunity to enter the international trade arena on an equal platform with traders from other nations. </p>

Oregon's nursery and greenhouse industry has ranked the first in the State's agricultural for 18 years. The majority of nursery sales from the Pacific Northwest come from Oregon. Due to data limitations, empirical study of the Oregon nursery industry is rare. The present dissertation consists of three essays that analyze the demand and supply of inputs and outputs and the relationship between producers and retailers in the Oregon nursery industry. Chapter 2 identifies the major factors affecting farm labor supply and demand and evaluates their relative importance in the Oregon nursery industry from 1991 to 2008. Empirical results show that border control effort doesn't have an influential role in labor supply, while the Oregon and Mexican minimum wage do. It is because of the substantial gap between the U.S. and Mexican economies, reflected for an example in the minimum wage gap, which attracts a continual flow of immigrants. Risk of border apprehension is not great enough to prevent the flow. Increases in Oregon minimum wage is more effective than border apprehension policies in boosting the average wage and in reducing the number of hours that illegal immigrants work in the nursery sector. Chapter 3 investigates producers' and retailers' choices of, and reactions to, various contract types in the Oregon nursery industry from 2005 to 2010. As new and fast-growing retailers in the industry, big-box stores are less likely than independent retailers to make pre-order contracts with the producer. However, once a pre-order contract is chosen, big-box stores demand more days of pre-order interval than independent retailers do. Transactions with independent retailers exhibit – on average over the sample range – scale economies and scope diseconomies. Boosting per-transaction revenue scale and the number of species sold to big-box stores enhances transaction efficiency. Chapter 4 examines the interaction between supply and demand in Oregon nursery products. The result indicates that the production and transaction costs are major drivers on the supply side, while transportation costs and consumer demand for nursery products play important roles on the demand side. At the genus level, the supply elasticities of coniferous plants are larger than those of deciduous plants, which in turn are higher than those of flowering plants. The demand elasticities are the lowest in coniferous trees followed by deciduous plants, then flowering plants. Price discounts on plants with high demand elasticities would significantly boost sales and enlarge the market, while those on plants with low demand elasticities would have less sales impact. Empirically, patenting seems to bring no direct signs of greater profitability. The wholesale nursery may wish to reconsider the pricing and marketing policies of its patented plants to differentiate them more effectively from its non-patented plants. / Graduation date: 2013

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

<p>The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 1980 (CISG) seeks to provide a standard uniform law for international sales contracts. This research paper analyses the rationale behind South Africa&rsquo / s delay in deciding whether to ratify the CISG, and its possible effect on trade with other nations. The CISG drafters hoped that uniformity would&nbsp / remove barriers to international sales thereby facilitating international trade. Ratification of the convention is only the beginning of uniformity / uniformity must then be extended to its application&nbsp / and interpretation. Not all countries have ratified the Convention yet they engage in international trade in goods: this state of affairs presents challenges since traders have to choose a national&nbsp / law that applies to their contract where CISG does not apply. This takes traders back to the undesirable pre-CISG era. On the other hand, those States that have ratified the convention face&nbsp / different challenges, the biggest one being a lack of uniformity in its interpretation. The problem of differing interpretations arises because some CISG Articles are vague leading to varied&nbsp / interpretations by national courts. Further, the CISG is still largely misunderstood and some traders from States that have ratified CISG exclude it from application. South Africa can only ratify an&nbsp / international instrument such as the CISG, after it has been tabled before Parliament, and debated upon in accordance with the Constitution. CISG&rsquo / s shortcomings, particularly regarding&nbsp / interpretation, make it far from certain that CISG would pass the rigorous&nbsp / legislative process. Nonetheless, the Constitution of South Africa requires the South African courts and legislature to promote principles of international law. The paper, therefore, examines, whether the Legislature has a constitutional obligation to ratify CISG. South Africa&rsquo / s membership of the WTO requires&nbsp / that it promote international trade by removing trade barriers. It is, therefore, vital for South Africa to be seen to be actively facilitating international trade. Even though the trade benefits which&nbsp / flow from ratification are not always visible in States that have ratified the CISG, there is some doubt whether South Africa can sustain its trade relations without ratifying the CISG. The paper shows that the formation&nbsp / of contracts under the South African common law is very similar to formation as set out under Part II of the CISG and if the CISG were to be adopted in South Africa, no major changes would be&nbsp / needed in this regard. International commercial&nbsp / principles as an alternative to the CISG still require a domestic law to govern the contract and would, therefore, leave South African traders in the&nbsp / same position they are in currently, where their trading relations are often governed by foreign laws. Ratifying CISG would certainly simplify contract negotiations particularly with regard to&nbsp / governing law provisions. Overall the advantages of ratification for South Africa far outweigh the shortcomings of the CISG, and ratification will assist in ensuring that South African traders get an&nbsp / opportunity to enter the international trade arena on an equal platform with traders from other nations. </p>

This research analyses the impact and materiality of South Africa’s choice not to ratify the CISG on its trade as well as relations with other states. As the point of departure, the broader events leading up to the creation of the CISG will be examined as well as UNCITRAL’s mandate and the development of trade in the local and global context. At present, the CISG has been ratified by 85 states. The decisions by common law jurisdictions such as the UK and India not to ratify the CISG as well as the delay by Brazil and Japan will be discussed. The legal, business and political or policy reasons for and against the ratification of the CISG are investigated which focuses on aspects such as legal certainty, uniformity of laws and the reduction of legal costs. An investigation is carried out regarding the historical foundations of the South African law of contract to this framework sets the tone for a comparison between the South African law and the provisions of the CISG. Lastly, a comparison is drawn between the provisions of the CISG and the South African law with specific emphasis on the remedies of specific performance and the right to claim damages which culminates in an overall conclusion that the South African law is compatible with the CISG insofar as remedies for breach of contract are concerned. / Mercantile Law / LL. M. (International Economic Law)

The legal nature of the bill of lading as a negotiable document of title has allowed it to provide the basis of a system in which bankers provide credit for the financing of international sales contracts on the strength of the security afforded by the goods represented in the bill. The sea waybill has appeared as a substitute for the bill of lading and, despite its nature as a nonnegotiable document, it can be employed in a manner which allows it to provide collateral security to banks. Multimodal transport documents which may be issued in negotiable or non-negotiable form assume the same legal role as the bill oflading or sea waybill respectively. The inclusion of specific articles in the 1993 Revision of the UCP relating to non-negotiable sea waybills and multimodal transport documents affirms their acceptability to banks financing international sales contracts under documentary letters of credit. / Law / LL.M.

Magister Legum - LLM / The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 1980 (CISG) seeks to provide a standard uniform law for international sales contracts. This research paper analyses the rationale behind South Africa’s delay in deciding whether to ratify the CISG, and its possible effect on trade with other nations. The CISG drafters hoped that uniformity would remove barriers to international sales thereby facilitating international trade. Ratification of the convention is only the beginning of uniformity; uniformity must then be extended to its application and interpretation. Not all countries have ratified the Convention yet they engage in international trade in goods: this state of affairs presents challenges since traders have to choose a national law that applies to their contract where CISG does not apply. This takes traders back to the undesirable pre-CISG era. On the other hand, those States that have ratified the convention face different challenges, the biggest one being a lack of uniformity in its interpretation. The problem of differing interpretations arises because some CISG Articles are vague leading to varied interpretations by national courts. Further, the CISG is still largely misunderstood and some traders from States that have ratified CISG exclude it from application. South Africa can only ratify an international instrument such as the CISG, after it has been tabled before Parliament, and debated upon in accordance with the Constitution. CISG’s shortcomings, particularly regarding interpretation, make it far from certain that CISG would pass the rigorous legislative process. Nonetheless, the Constitution of South Africa requires the South African courts and legislature to promote principles of international law. The paper, therefore, examines, whether the Legislature has a constitutional obligation to ratify CISG. South Africa’s membership of the WTO requires that it promote international trade by removing trade barriers. It is, therefore, vital for South Africa to be seen to be actively facilitating international trade. Even though the trade benefits which flow from ratification are not always visible in States that have ratified the CISG, there is some doubt whether South Africa can sustain its trade relations without ratifying the CISG. The paper shows that the formation of contracts under the South African common law is very similar to formation as set out under Part II of the CISG and if the CISG were to be adopted in South Africa, no major changes would be needed in this regard. International commercial principles as an alternative to the CISG still require a domestic law to govern the contract and would, therefore, leave South African traders in the same position they are in currently, where their trading relations are often governed by foreign laws. Ratifying CISG would certainly simplify contract negotiations particularly with regard to governing law provisions. Overall the advantages of ratification for South Africa far outweigh the shortcomings of the CISG, and ratification will assist in ensuring that South African traders get an opportunity to enter the international trade arena on an equal platform with traders from other nations. / South Africa

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.

It is universally acknowledged that international trade and cooperation have become key drivers of SMEs. Indeed, the success of SMEs in the sales sector depends upon their capacity to conquer the foreign market and compete with larger companies. Many SMEs today, in particular those in Central and West Africa, are very much aware of this reality. However, because of differences between domestic laws and their maladjustment, many African SMEs still struggle to enter the international market and compete with larger companies. It is therefore obvious that any SMEs that want to succeed in international commerce today will be called upon to confront different regulations, whether domestic, regional or international, which are often shaped according to the realities and expectations of a particular environment. The challenge today is to regulate and harmonise these different legal systems, in order to render the law identical in numerous jurisdictions. This process of unifying the law internationally, in particular the law of sale, started in 1920 and culminated in 1988, with the implementation of the CISG. This Convention, which has become the primary law for international sales contracts, endeavours to deal with this problem of differences in law between states on a global scale, by attempting to achieve a synthesis between different legislations, such as civil law, common law, socialist law, and the law regarding industrialised and Third World countries. Even though the CISG appears to be a compromise between different legal systems, the fact remains that it is not yet applicable in many countries, especially those in Central and West Africa, which are mostly still ruled by domestic and regional law, namely the OHADA. The purpose of this study is to attempt to analyse and compare the OHADA’s Uniform Act Relating to Commercial Law to the CISG, in order to identify similarities and differences between the two, and to determine, with regard to the operating mode and structure of SMEs in West and Central Africa, which one of the two legislations is more appropriate. / Private Law / LL. M.