13 CISG
Article 13 CISG
I. Overview
Article 13 CISG refers to situations in which the contract or other contractual statements must be in writing. Such writing requirement may exist because the parties have agreed on a writing requirement or are bound to it by established practice between them or by a trade usage (see above Art 11 CISG). Apart from those situations, a writing requirement may exist if a party has its place of business in a State that has made a declaration within the meaning of Article 12 CISG.
The goal of Article 13 CISG is to ensure that ‘writing’ does not only refer to the traditional written form but that it also includes more modern means of communication. Article 13 CISG is thus an interpretative provision.
In case law, this provision has been referred to very rarely.
II. Modern Interpretation of Article 13 CISG
It is widely recognised that Article 13 CISG contains a gap in that it only refers to older forms of technology and does not provide for more recent forms of communication, such as fax, e-mail, internet or other electronic communication. See, in this regard, the following statement.