The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, which was adopted by a diplomatic conference in Vienna in 1980, comes into force on 1 January 1988, 12 months after ratification by the United States, China and Italy brought the number of such ratifications above the required figure of 10. The Convention has attracted almost no attention in this country, but there is already a considerable literature elsewhere. So far there have been only two systematic commentaries, by Professor Schlechtriem in 1981 (Einheitliches U.N.–Kaufrecht) and by Professor Honnold in 1982 (Uniform Law for International Sales under the 1980 U.N. Convention), but the published proceedings of at least two conferences have provided what are in effect commentaries by different hands on the main features of the Convention,

Schlechtriem now provides a revised edition of his book, translated into English and thus made accessible to a much wider public. This is most welcome. The book is quite short (some 45,000 words) but written with a combination of clarity, economy and balance which makes it an admirable guide. And it is a guide which takes full account both of the drafting history, going back to the 1964 Uniform Laws, and, chiefly in the footnotes, of the subsequent literature. Schlechtriem has his own views on many points and these are clearly put, but not to the neglect of conflicting opinions. He has been exceptionally well served in the translation (he pays justified tribute to the work of Richard Hyland). One is almost never reminded that one is reading a translation (in one or two places one is aware of the trap laid by the distinction between “damage” and “damages”). Of course, it is still a German book, in the sense that it is written from the standpoint of German law. It draws attention to the relationship between the Convention and institutions of German law and as one would expect, only occasionally refers to the common law. It takes full account, however, in dealing with the drafting history, of the positions of common law states. For the common lawyer’s angle and the particular difficulties which the Convention poses for him, the reader will go to Honnold’s book, which is also longer and more discursively written and favours the use of the hypothetical case. The reader will, however, bear in mind that if there is a weakness in Honnold’s book it derives from the fact that Honnold was to a substantial extent the midwife of the Convention and indeed indirectly the progenitor of important parts of it. He is therefore sometimes less willing than Schlechtriem to acknowledge its shortcomings.

In his Preface, Schlechtriem says that uniformity in the interpretation of the Convention will be promoted by wide international discussion of potential problems before the Convention comes to be applied by the courts. His book is a very valuable contribution to this process.

The Dubrovnik lectures (by 13 scholars from 10 countries, but not a common lawyer