Keeping up with The CISG: A Case of Indonesia

C onvention on Contracts for International Sales of Goods (CISG) contracts are essential for international trade as this ensures the principle of justice is met globally. Indonesia as a developing country should be aware of the international trade law, as the Indonesian legal system had remained largely unchanged from Dutch colonial heritage since a century and a half ago. Therefore, there is a current debate on whether Indonesia should ratify the CISG or not? This paper offers abundant of consideration in order to answer the question. The aims of this research are: 1) to determine why Indonesia has refrained from ratifying the CISG up to now to, 2) To determine current pressures on Indonesia to ratify CISG, 3) to assess potential advantages of ratification, 4) to assess potential disadvantages of ratification, and 5) To make recommendations with respect to reservations that Indonesia should consider. This paper employs research methods by systematically reviewing the relevant literature. Inclusion criteria will be that (a) sources contain the key terms of “Indonesia” and/or “CISG”, (b) sources are published in English, (c) sources are more recent than 2001. It is discovered that decision makers in Indonesia face the difficult choice of whether staying with an embedded system of rules for contractual disputes of an international or to keep up with the CISG. The majority of opinion appears to suggest that Indonesia needs to reform its economic legislation and ratifying the CISG at the same would be prudent. The challenges for decision makers is choosing an appropriate time and giving the judiciary meaningful instruction on the interpretation of key provisions.