Harmonizing the Battle of the Forms: A Comparison of the United States, Canada, and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

As trade between the United States and Canada continues to increase on the heels of the free trade agreements of the early 1990s, the question of which body of commercial law to apply to these transactions becomes increasingly important. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) serves as the default governing law for many of these transactions. In spite of its lack of use and the confusion it has brought to choice of law provisions as a self-executing treaty, many scholars have suggested that the CISG can continue to serve as a body of transnational contract law if it is harmonized with the domestic laws of the United States and Canada. This Note illustrates the existing confusion by looking at a common contract hypothetical, the battle of the forms. It then surveys the various arguments that have been forwarded on behalf of harmonization and argues that international transactions will be ameliorated by efforts at vertical uniformity between domestic laws and the CISG, uniform interpretation of the CISG, and education of the practicing bar