Today, international sales contracts are frequently governed by the 1980 UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is in force in more than 60 states all over world - both industrial nations and developing countries. It has been widely applied in international commercial transactions in the past twenty years. More than 1,700 decisions by state courts and arbitral tribunals have been reported so far. In short, the CISG has been one of the success stories in the field of the international unification of private law. The authors introduce the reader to the mechanics of that highly successful Convention by describing and analyzing the areas that the Convention covers, in particular its scope of application, the rules on the formation of contract, and the actual sales provisions. The book is primarily aimed at students, academics, and practitioners who have not yet studied the Convention in detail. From a comparative perspective, the book will be of particular interest as it combines a civil law view and a common law view on the CISG.