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April 28, 2011
Redux: If your U.S. client trades abroad, the UCC won't always give you the answer.
If you buy and sell in the global markets, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is your new friend.
If your day job is like WAC?'s, it's not off-the-wall for a longstanding client to call on a Friday afternoon with a question about a clause in a 10-year old contract under which the client, a U.S. widget manufacturer, is selling widgets to a Norwegian distributor. "No problem," you think. And you tell her: "Let me look at the Uniform Commercial Code, preliminarily. We'll start there, of course. I will call you back."
Be careful there, fancy-lawyer guy.
Commercially, we live in a world that never sleeps. Every minute, even during these nervous months, deals are struck and goods change hands. In cases of international sales of goods, the Uniform Commercial Code--or UCC, adopted by 49 states to create a standardized law for commercial transactions in the U.S.--is often preempted by the federally-adopted United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980)(often referred to as the "CISG").
A multinational treaty that provides a uniform law for international sales of goods, the CISG was signed in 1980--and has been ratified by over 70 countries. While the CISG is similar to the UCC, there are differences, and some are major. For example, unlike the UCC, the CISG generally does not require any contract for the sale of goods to be in writing. More importantly, unless the terms of a sales contract between parties from participating countries expressly exclude the CISG, the CISG is deemed to govern the contract.
By the way, don't guess on Contracting States, or signers, either. The U.S. adopted the CISG in 1988. Australia, most of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and South America have also adopted the CISG.
One notable holdout: the United Kingdom.
Note: Courtesy of Pace Law School, in White Plains, New York: for U.S. citation purposes, the United Nations-certified English text is published in 52 Fed. Reg. 6262, 6264-6280 (March 2, 1987); United States Code Annotated, Title 15, Appendix (Supp. 1987). We were trying quickly to track that down, no one else had it "unofficial-quick-and-dirty-handy" on the Internet (not even UNCITRAL), Pace had it, and Pace was right.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2011
Ancient Easter: The Hill of Slane.
An Easter Week Druid Setback. In 433 A.D., the day before Easter, St. Patrick lit a bonfire here as part of his campaign to convert the Druids to Christianity. Patrick, a feisty Brit by birth, did this to defy the High King Laoghire, who had forbid any other fires while a Beltane festival fire was burning on the nearby Hill of Tara (now in Meath County). Unfortunately, King Laoghire so liked Patrick's moxie that he let Patrick continue his campaign to convert the feral and mysterious Druids in that part of Ireland.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2011
At Cross-Culture: Caste, Class and Lower England.
I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
--Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Englishman, poet, satirist.
At Cross-Culture, do see "The English--In a Class of Their Own" by Michael Gates. Excerpt:
The richest person I know-–a multi-millionaire by his mid-thirties--told me that his working-class background means that there are still people who ‘cut him dead’ socially.
And I will never forget my first seminar at Oxford University, when a class-mate (in more ways than one) from Lancashire was asked to read out his brilliant essay on the Victorian poets Tennyson and Browning. One of the girls suddenly walked out and never came back. Afterwards she told us she ‘had to go and vomit, as she couldn’t stand listening to that Northern, working-class accent.’
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2011
Bennet Kelley: The GOP's Borat Budget.
Will the GOP budget make America "the only developed nation in the world that aspires to be Kazakhstan"? See Bennet Kelley's new piece at DemocraticUnderground.com. Pictured below, sort of: Republican budget guru Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Posted by JD Hull at 12:58 AM | Comments (1)
April 08, 2011
Los Angeles
"Hollywood is the one place in the world where you can die of encouragement." --Dorothy Parker
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2011
Writing Well: The Rain Man v. The Boilerplate Vampires.
Our friend Ray Ward is a man any new hire--an ambitious law clerk, sought-after first-year associate, needy Teacup, stressed Tubbie, or flat-out Looter-in-Training--would be lucky to meet on the first day of work.
Unfortunately, most of us don't meet anyone like him. So we risk a quicker and more hideous transformation to the ranks of generic lawyers, mechanics, "legal professionals", law cattle and, in extreme cases, Crested Newts.
In this profession, bad Shapeshifting happens.
Ward, a writer, Renaissance man, and appellate lawyer with New Orleans-based powerhouse Adams and Reese LLP, can help you avoid these mutations. He's wary of legal forms, or templates, to do his own work. Indeed, any boilerplate gives him the willies. Read "An Editorial Against Boilerplate" and "The Vampires of Legal Writing" at his The (New) Legal Writer.
Generic New Orleans Forms-Vampire
Vampire-Killer Ray Ward
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2011
Overheard in Brentwood.
Every time I listen to other people, everything just gets all f_cked up.
--Guy in a restaurant
Posted by JD Hull at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2011
Confucius Said: Un-Friend Lames. Un-Follow Beavis/Butthead. Surround Yourself with Equals or Betters.
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
-- Confucius (551 BC–479 BC)
The unproductive Age of PC Nice of the last several decades is Over. Get a better standard. True, the virtues of Warmth, Charity and Civility are always important--and always will be. But Growth tops all three. And to grow, you'll need new skin. Hang with equals--and if at all possible with your "betters".
Learn more. Challenge yourself. Stop surrounding yourself and your employees with people who merely make you and yours feel "comfortable". And maybe even feel superior.
Un-friend and un-follow the "not growing" on your Social Media accounts: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. Dump bad clients. Phase out bad GCs.
Give marginal employees the old Heave-Ho. Fire bad employees. Do it now. Stretch yourself. Save your firm.
Play tennis with people who rarely double fault--but the ones with first serves which (at first) you can barely even see.
Grow. Advance. Get further down the road. It's either you or them, Jack. Sure, be "Nice". But do save yourself. Don't let people lacking your energy and drive hold you or yours back.
Confucius, by Wu Daozi (680–740)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2011
Looking Back at Women's History Month: Interview with Jack Nicholson.
The third and final installment--Hour Three--of Dan Hull's recent 3-hour podcast with Jack Nicholson airs on Wednesday, April 6 at 12:00 noon EST on this blog. In Hour Three, hear Jack and Dan discuss "Problems Women Will Always Have".
"Jesus Christ, Holden, we could have done this whole thing over at Sheen's place, if you know what I mean."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)