The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has been recognized as the most successful attempt to unify a broad area of commercial law at the international level. The self-executing treaty aims to reduce obstacles to international trade, particularly those associated with choice of law issues, by creating even-handed and modern substantive rules governing the rights and obligations of parties to international sales contracts. At the time this is written (February 2009), the CISG has attracted more than 70 Contracting States that account for well over two thirds of international trade in goods, and that represent extraordinary economic, geographic and cultural diversity.