The Status of Hong Kong and Macao under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

16 Pace International Law Review (2004, 307-332 The applicability of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11 April 1980 (CISG), the most important international convention unifying matters of international contract law, to an international sales contract according to Article 1(1)(a) CISG depends on both parties having their place of business in different Contracting States. The People's Republic of China was among the first States to ratify the CISG, meaning that all companies residing in the PRC do have - at least at first sight - their place of business in a Contracting State of the CISG. This result, however, causes difficulties when companies from Hong Kong and Macao are concerned, as these two territories were originally colonies of two States that did ratify the CISG (i.e. the United Kingdom and Portugal), and when returning to the PRC in 1997 resp. 1999, Hong Kong and Macao were given the status of Special Administrative Regions with a high degree of autonomy also in legal matters. Against this background, the present paper discusses the question of Hong Kong and Macao are to be treated as parts of a Contracting State under the CISG. It argues that the answer must be in the affirmative as Article 97 CISG expressly provides that a Contracting State comprising different territorial units has to make an express declaration if it selects not to apply the CISG to certain of its territorial units, and the PRC has not done so.