Not only the fact that the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) had its 25th anniversary in 2005 provided sufficient reason for the Private Law Division of the German Association of Comparative Law to devote a symposium at its the 30th session to that instrument. Recent developments have brought the CISG into the limelight within the process of harmonization of private law in Europe. Thus, the Action Plan for a more coherent European Contract Law, published by the European Commission in 2003, raised the possibility of creating an "optional instrument“ in the field of European Contract Law. Such optional instrument is supposed to "provide parties to a contract with a modern body of rules particularly adapted to cross-border contracts in the internal market". The Action Plan was not very specific as to what the optional instrument should look like; it raised the question of the relationship between the optional instrument and the CISG. The range extends from a concurrent European (international) sales law to an instrument which only deals with questions outside the CISG. Furthermore, the CISG has had considerable influence on the Draft Principles of European Sales Law. The same is true of the European Consumer Sales Directive of 1999, the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and also for instruments concerning the global harmonization of contract law, such as UNIDROIT's Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). Further developments within Europe have led to the discussion of the role of the CISG in the future. The European Union’s expansion towards Central and Eastern Europe forced states to consider a harmonization of their contract law in the light of expected increases in commercial relations with Western Europe. For that reason, it is appropriate to examine how the CISG has influenced national contract law in these states.
 
The conference focused upon the CISG in light of these developments. The first segment subjected the central elements of CISG to a critical analysis: the structure of the remedies in general and the remedy of damages. Secondly, the interaction between the CISG and domestic remedies was considered, using the examples of recission for mistake and remedies within tort law. Thirdly, the role of the CISG within the process of the harmonization of contract law in Europe was examined. Specific emphasis was placed on the activities set in motion by the Commission of the European Union and on the proposals of the Study Group on European Contract Law in the field of sales law. Finally, the practical relevance of CISG in business affairs was called into question, particularly in the United States, thus asking if some of the enthusiasm over the CISG is perhaps unwarranted.
 
The presentations included:
 
Franco Ferrari, The Interaction between the United Nations Conventions on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and Domestic Remedies (Rescission for Mistake and Remedies in Tort Law)
 
Ewoud Hondius, CISG and a European Civil Code - Some Reflections
 
Peter Huber, CISG – The Structure of Remedies
 
Alastair Mullis, Twenty Five Years On – The United Kingdom, Damages and the Vienna Sales Convention
 
Mathias Reiman, CISG in the United States: Why It Has Been Neglected and Why Europeans Should Care
 
Fryderyk Zoll, The Impact of the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods on Polish Law, With Some References to other Central and Eastern European Countries
  
The contributions have been published with a forward from Reinhard Zimmermann in the first volume of the 2007 RabelsZ