The extinctive prescription on international merchandise sales, according to the New York Convention of 1974

• Author: Floroiu Mihai Mihai
• Position: Lect. Univ. Dr. Floroiu Mihai, University of Craiova, Faculty of Law
• Pages: 1-3

THE EXTINCTIVE PRESCRIPTION ON INTERNATIONAL

MERCHANDISE SALES,

ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK CONVENTION OF 1974

Floroiu Mihai

Abstract

In order to facilitate global tra de and help international businesses to develop,

general rules were needed in order to ensure clear terms of prescription in the area of

international sales. Those rules were set up by a Convention, signed in New York in 1974 (NY

Convention).

Key words – international sales, pr escription, New York Convention.

Introduction

The NY Convention, signed on June 14th. 1974, under the auspices of the UN1, is

divided into four sections – Title I on General Dispositions, Title II on Application Measures,

Title III on Declarations and reserves and Title IV on Final Dispositions. The main objective

of this convention, as stated on its preamble, is to facilitate the development of global trade,

by establishing general rules in terms of prescription of international merchandise sales,

having in mind the fact that international trade could be an important factor for promoting

friendly relations between States.

The Convention was amended by the Protocol signed in Vienna on April 11th. 1980,

with the scope to ensure its harmonisation with the dispositions of the UN Convention on

International Merchandise Sales Contracts, signed on the same date and place. It entered into

force on 1 August 1988 and there are presently 20 States parties to this Convention, out of

which 14 were also parties to the amending Convention.

As per article3 paragraph 3 of the Convention, it has a suppletive character, as it does

not apply when the Contracting Parties decided to avoid its application in their relations.

Although from the dispositions of the Convention one might conclude that the Contracting

Parties have the possibility to avoid it’s application only by their express will, this disposition

being thus more restrictive than the one of the article 6 of the Vienna Convention (1980), we

consider that such a derogation can only be direct (via inclusion of a specific clause in the

contract) but also indirect, by acceptance from the Contracting Parties of different clauses in

relation with the Convention.

I. Fields of application

A. Temporal field of application

The application in time of this Convention is determined by article 33, according to

which, each State will start implementing the Convention to contracts concluded after the

Convention entered into force in relation to the respective State. There will be, therefore, an

application only for the future (ex-nunc), based on the non-retro-activity principle.

 Lect. univ. dr. Floroiu Mihai, University of Craiova, Faculty of Law, mihai.floroiu@gmail.com.

This paper has been financed from the contract POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61968, strategic project ID 61968

(2009), cofinanced from the Ruropean Social Fund, through the Operational Sector Programme for the

Development of Human Resources 2007 – 2013.

1 INCOTERMS regulations were published in 1990 in a bilingual edition (English and F rench) on a CCI Paris

Brochure (no. 460). A Romanian translation was done by CCI Romania.