We’ve blogged about professional legal interpretation services and US contract translation services in Denver, Colorado, and nationwide legal translation services in the context of contract law and multilingual arbitration contracts. The impact of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) on international arbitration has been felt ever since its implementation several years ago. First, its adoption as the domestic contract law of the individual signatories will require its application by arbitrators under conflict of law rules. This means that courts and arbitral tribunals will be required to apply its rules when it is determined that it is the law of the case.
Second, it may be voluntarily applied as evidence of customary international law, and arbitration tribunals seem to make it a habit to recognize it as a source of customary international contract law.
And third, as the CISG is essentially a compromise between three of the world’s major legal systems (common law, civil law, and socialist law) it possesses a universal appeal that many arbitrators will find appealing in their search for a lex mercatoria-type of justification for their awards.
What this means is that arbitration plays a more powerful role in international contract dispute resolution. Whenever international arbitration comes into play, typically a common language is agreed upon. For this reason, when entering into any international contract, one should always include an arbitration clause that specifically states both the language and jurisdiction to be used. More so, all international contracts should contain a foreign language translation into all relevant languages.