In this article the author explores key aspects of Denmark’s reception and implementation of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). Placing the treaty within its larger private law context, the author explains the complexity and confusion created by Denmark’s refusal to ratify Part II of the Convention that regulates sales contract formation. The author then proceeds to investigate Denmark’s obligation to have regard to the international character of the Convention and the need to promote uniformity in its application, underlying the problematical relationship between these international obligations and the Danish judicial tradition of formulating premises so brief that they shed little light on the decision’s underlying rationale ( ratio decidendi ). Following analysis and critique of three Danish CISG court judgments
which help illustrate these propositions, the author proposes corrective steps designed to further a more international (and less parochial) approach to the CISG.