국제물품매매계약에 관한 유엔협약(CISG)과 매도인의 담보책임

Seller’s Liability for Warranty under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

2004년 2월 17일 우리나라는 국제물품매매계약에 관한 유엔협약(The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: 이하 CISG라 함)에 가입하여 2005년 3월 1일부터 본 협약의 효력이 발효되었다. 따라서 국제물품매매계약에 관하여 합의에 의하여 CISG의 적용을 배제하기로 하지 아니한 체약국으로서 상이한 국가에 영업소를 개설한 때에는 달리 합의를 하지 않더라도 국제거래의 준거법으로서 민법ㆍ상법 이외에 CISG가 적용되게 되었다. 결과적으로 국제물품매매계약과 관련하여 우리나라의 민법과 상법 그리고 CISG에서 규정한 각기 다른 법체계를 통일적으로 해석하여 적용해야 하는 과제를 안게 되었다. 그러나 국제물품매매계약에 의하여 매도인이 인도한 물품에 하자가 있을 때에 야기되는 갈등을 어떻게 해결할 것인가 하는 문제가 제기될 수 있는데, 이때에 생각할 수 있는 책임론으로는 채무불이행책임과 하자담보책임이 있으며, 지금까지 이들 책임론의 관계와 기능에 대한 논의는 민법학에서 중요한 논의 가운데 하나였다. 그러나 CISG에서는 인도한 물품에 하자가 있더라도 하자담보책임에 관한 규정이 없으므로 매도인이 인도한 물품이 계약의 본지에 따라서 인도되지 않은 경우에 매수인이 받은 손해를 어떻게 구제 받을 수 있는가에 대하여 의문이 제기될 수 있다는 문제의식을 가지고 본고는 CISG에서의 국제물품매매계약에서 매도인이 인도한 물품의 하자로 인한 법적인 문제와 그 해결책에 대해서 고찰하였다.

South Korea signed as a member on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (hereinafter referred to as ‘UNCISG’) on February 17, 2004, and the UNCISG came into effect from March 1, 2005. Therefore, South Korea became a contracting party that shall not exclude any application of UNCISG under its contractual agreement, so that UNCISG, apart from Civil Law and Commercial Law, became applied as a governing law to any contract for international sale of goods where a business office is opened in overseas country. As a result, the contract for international sale of goods has faced a challenge of consistently interpreting and applying different legal systems specified in Korean Civil Law, Korean Commercial Law and UNCISG. In general, any liabilities conceivable in case of a defect found from goods delivered after dealing can fall broadly into two categories, that is, liability for default and liability for warranty against defects. Traditional discussions about possible associations and functions of these two kinds of liability have been addressed as one of critical topics in the studies of Civil Law. However, the said UNCISG on which South Korea signed on February 27, 2004 contains no provision on any liability for warranty against defects. That is why there may be a controversy about how to resolve these problems appearing in contracts for the international sale of goods. Particularly, it will be necessary to present a favorable way to resolve any problem shown in international trades, since UNCISG shall be applied in advance of Korean Civil Law and Commercial Law to any case of defect found in goods delivered under contracts for the international sale of goods. In order to give any relief for damages due to such defect, the Korean Civil Law divides the relief broadly into 2 categories, i.e. relief based on liability for default and relief based on liability for warranty against defects respectively. But UNCISG uses an common concept called ‘breach of contract’ to make such a uniform provision that a seller who fails to implement his or her contractual obligation shall assume any resulting liability for buyer’s damages. In particular, in view of more or less differences between Korean statutory provisions and UNCISG in liability and relief when either of both parties violates any contract for the international sale of goods, there may be any unexpected risk resulting from inconsistency of legal system. Hence, it is necessary to review and examine major considerations of Korean relevant statutory provisions in comparison with relevant UNCISG provisions before developing a preventive safeguard measure.