^1. Ibid., Nineteenth Session, Annexes, annex No. 2, document A/5728.

 ^2. Ibid., Twentieth Session, Annexes, agenda item 92, document A/C.6/L.572, para. 3. 1...]

 ^3. See Hilding Eek, The Swedish Conflicts of Laws (The Hague, Nijhoff, 1965), p. 272.

 ^4. As the representative of China observed, ". . . should the various countries succeed in enacting uniform rules of substantive law, the rules of private international law would no longer be relevant since those rules presupposed that municipal laws would remain intact and merely sought to mitigate the disadvantages arising from them." He recalled "Beckett's comment that private international law was in a sense the antithesis of the universal unification of law. Its raison d'etre was the existence in different systems of law ... both the process of codification of private international law and that of unification of private law were designed to promote international trade, provided they advanced by degrees and did not turn out to have aims which were incompatible." (See Official Records of the General Assembly, Twentieth Session, Sixth Committee, 895th meeting, paras. 13 and 15.)

 ^5. See e.g., Gerard de Malynes' Lex Mercatoria, first published in 1636.

 ^6. Preceded by the Ordonnance sur le commerce of Louis XIV of 1673 and Colbert's Ordonnance de la marine of 1681.

 ^7. Preceded by the Allgemeine Wechselordnung of 1848. The Allgemeine Handelsgesetzbuch of 1861 is still in operation in Austria; in Germany it was superseded by the Handelsgesetzbuch of 1897.

 ^8. See T.F.T. Plucknett, A Concise History of the Common Law, 4th ed., (London, Butterworth, 1948), p. 332.

 ^9. See Clive M. Schmitthoff, "The Law of International Trade, Its Growth, Formulation and Operation" in The Sources of the Law of International Trade with special reference to East-West Trade, edited by Clive M. Schmitthoff (New York, Praeger, 1964), p. 3.

 ^10. See Henryk Trammer, "The Law of Foreign Trade in the Legal Systems of the Countries of Planned Economy," ibid., p. 42.

 ^11. See Clive M. Schmitthoff, "The Law of International Trade, Its Growth, Formulation and Operation," ibid., p. 4.

 ^12. See Aleksandar Goldstajn, "International Conventions and Standard Contracts as Means of Escaping from the Application of Municipal Law," ibid., p. 109.

 ^13. Austra, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Roumania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.

 ^14. For analyses and comments on The Hague Conventions, see e.g. Philippe Kahn, "La Convention de la Haye du ler juillet 1964 portant loi uniforme sur la vente internationale des objets mobiliers corporels" in Revue trimestrielle de droit commercial (Paris). vol. 17, 1964, p. 45; John Honnold. "The Uniform Law for the International Sale of Goods: The Hague Convention of 1964" in Law and Contemporary Problems (Durham, North Carolina), vol. 30, 1965, p. 326; Harold Berman, "The Uniform Law on International Sale of Goods: A Constructive Critique," ibid., p. 354; Gunnar Lagergren, "The Uniform Law on Formation of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods" in Journal of Business Law (London, 1966), p. 22; Ernst von Caemmerer, "Internationales Kaufrecht" in Festschrift fur Hans Carl Nipperdey... (Munich, Beck, 1955), p. 211; Andre Tunc, Commentary of The Hague Convention of I July 1964 on the International Sale of Goods and on the Formation of Contracts of Sale (The Hague, Ministry of Justice 1966); Jorge Barrera Graf, La Reglamentacion uniforme de las compraventas internacionales de mercaderfas (Mexico, D.F., Universidad Nacional Autonoma, 1965).

 ^15. See Antonio Malintoppi, ' The Uniformity of Interpretation of International Conventions on Uniform Laws and of Standard Contracts," in Schmitthoff, op. cit., pp. 127-137.

 ^16. The record of the IIIrd Meeting may be found in Unification of Law: Yearbook, 1963 (Rome, Editions Unidroit, 1964).

 ^17. See "Utilite de rendre obligatoires pour tous les Etats, sous la forme d'un ou de plusieurs traites internationaux, un certain nombre de regles generales du droit international prive, pour assurer la decision uniforme des conflits entre les differentes legislations civiles et criminelles" in Revue de droit international, (Paris), vol. 7, 1931, p. 329.

 ^18. The decision to convene this first Conference owed much to the initiative of Tobias Asser, who subsequently served as President of the first four Hague Conferences (1893, 1894, 1900, 1904) .

 ^19. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 220 (1955), No. 2997, p. 121.

 ^20. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

 ^21. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 510 (1964), No. 7411, p. 147.

 ^22. See G.C. Cheshire, "International Contracts for the Sale of Goods," in Journal of Business Law (London, 1960), p. 285.

 ^23. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 286 (1958), No. 4173, p. 265.

 ^24. Ibid., vol. 527 (1965), No. 7625, p. 189.

 ^25. League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. CXLIII (1933-1934), No. 3313, p. 257; No. 3314, p. 317; No. 3315, p. 337.

 ^26. Ibid., vol CXLIII (1933-1934), No. 3301, p. 7; No. 3316, p. 355; No. 3317, p. 407.