International Commercial Law from a Nordic and Baltic Perspective: Status and Current Challenges

Abstract

On 18 September 2014 the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the department of law at Aarhus University hosted a joint
conference to take stock of the recent changes in the field of international commercial law in
the Nordic and Baltic region. The region had long been a place of numerous reservations
against the full and unrestricted application of the 1980 UN Sales Convention (CISG). When
Finland decided to withdraw one of its reservations in the spring of 2012, a change in the legal
framework for international commercial businesses was a fact. The withdrawal by Finland was
followed by withdrawals by Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway. Hence, the need
to reconsider the legal framework surrounding international business was born. This is a
summary report of the conference held at Aarhus University on Thursday the 18th of
September 2014 covering various commercial law aspects relating to globalisation, the role of
the CISG, legal traditions, uniformity in text and application, formation of contracts, battle of
forms, form requirements, validity issues, withdrawal of reservations, contract drafting and
visualisation, and INCOTERMS. The full Audiovisual Conference Book is available online at
CISGNordic.net.