Description

Standards are a pervasive feature of modern life. Most products today have some corresponding standard(s) concerning a product’s composition, features, such as health and safety, or the process to be followed in making it. The standards are numerous, having different origins, ownership, character and functions. Some of them are adopted by states and often contained in public law regulations (‘public’ standards). Other standards are ‘private’ in the sense that they are produced by non-state bodies and organisations. These standards have proliferated greatly in the last two decades and play an important role in governing various aspects of goods and their production processes. Against this background, there has been surprisingly little discussion of the role and relevance of standards in the law of sale of goods. After all, the issue of ‘conformity’ or ‘quality’ of goods, being one of the most highly litigated, occupies a central place in sales law; and it is with ‘conformity of goods’ that product standards are concerned. It is not the purpose of sales law to enforce standards because its task is to determine what the seller’s obligations are in respect of goods. However, given that both the rules on conformity in sales law and standards largely target the same subject-matter, standards can be highly relevant to the determination of the seller’s obligations and ultimately liability, arising from the contract of sale. In this presentation, Professor Saidov will examine whether standards, public or private, concerning conformity of goods should influence the interpretation of sales contracts and of the terms implied in sales law. He will organise the thus far disparate discussions about standards within one framework and develop criteria and factors for understanding and analysing the complex interaction between sales law and standards. This examination will be carried out in the context of several Common Law systems (such as those of the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and, to a lesser degree, the United States and Hong Kong) and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

About The Speaker

Professor Djakhongir Saidov specialises in international commercial law and law relating to international oil and gas operations. He joined The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London in August 2015 as Professor of Commercial Law and was previously based in the University of Birmingham, where he was Reader in Law (2013-2015), Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law (2009-2013) and Lecturer in Commercial Law (2004-2009). Professor Saidov holds PhD and LLM (with Distinction) degrees from the University of East Anglia and an LLB degree from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan). He has written extensively on various aspects of the international sale of goods and international commercial law instruments (including two monographs: Conformity of Goods and Documents – The Vienna Sales Convention (Oxford, Hard Publishing 2015); The Law of Damages in International Sales – The CISG and other International Instruments (Oxford, Hard Publishing 2008)). He is a recognised expert on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and contract damages, and currently acts as a Reporter to the CISG Advisory Council (CISG-AC).

Who Should Attend

Lawyers, in-house counsel and legal officers working in commercial sales, export/import and international trade, traders, importers, exporters, charterers, forwarders and those handling claims arising from international sales agreements.