UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW (UNCITRAL)
A brief guide to UNCITRAL document research
This guide is intended as a general introduction to various types of UNCITRAL documents and provides links to representative samples. Note that the samples, like many documents contained on the UNCITRAL Web site, are posted in the Adobe Acrobat ".pdf" format. To view these documents, you will need to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer.
Languages
UNCITRAL documents are published in the six official languages of the United Nations -- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Each version of a particular document, regardless of language, has an identical document symbol, consisting of letters and numbers, and date. The UNCITRAL Yearbook, in which all substantive UNCITRAL documents are reproduced, is published in English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Document forms
UNCITRAL documents appear in a variety of forms, depending on their function.
Annual reports of the Commission
At the end of each annual session, the Commission adopts a report for submission to the General Assembly. These annual reports are issued as supplement No. 17 to the Official Records of that session of the General Assembly. For example, the Report of the Commission on the work of its thirty-second session was printed as document A/54/17 (Supplement No. 17 to the Official Records of the 54th Session of the General Assembly). (click to view first page of A/54/17)
Resolutions of the General Assembly (pertaining to the work of UNCITRAL)
The General Assembly generally adopts one or more resolutions regarding the Commission's annual work. General Assembly resolutions are first issued in provisional form and are later reissued at the end of the year as the last numbered supplement of the Official Records. For example, A/RES/54/103 is a provisional General Assembly document containing resolution 54/103 adopted during the General Assembly's 54th session. (click to view A/RES/54/103) Note that prior to 1976, such provisionally-issued General Assembly documents were sequentially numbered and did not contain an arabic number indicating their session (e.g. A/2205 (XXI)).
The Commission has three intergovernmental working groups currently representing the full membership of the Commission, each of which has a specific area of work. For historical reasons, these groups are currently numbered II, IV, and V. The names given to each numbered working group may change according to the topic under consideration.
Working groups report to the Commission on the progress of their sessions. For example, the Report of the Working Group on Electronic Commerce on the work of the thirty-seventh session (Vienna, 18 - 29 September 2000) has been assigned the document symbol A/CN.9/483. Each part of the document symbol provides information about the corresponding document. The letter "A" signifies that the document is a General Assembly document. "/CN.9" refers to UNCITRAL, which is the ninth commission that reports to the General Assembly. "/483" is the sequential number assigned to the identify the document. (click to view first page of A/CN.9/483) Working group reports may also bear an additional document symbol following the sequential number indicating the function of that particular document. (see discussion of additional document symbols infra)
Note that the symbol does not include a reference to the Working Group. Document symbols designate the body to whom the document is submitted, in this case, the Commission, rather than the body which originated the document.
Documents prepared by the Secretariat
The Secretariat prepares a range of reports and notes for consideration by the Commission and its working groups. Note that in addition to the document symbols discussed below, documents prepared by the Secretariat may also bear an additional document symbol following the sequential number indicating the function of that particular document. (see discussion of additional document symbols infra)
Documents produced by the Secretariat for the Commission include, inter alia, analytical commentary, draft uniform rules, notes, reports, studies, compilations of information, and other types of documents within the scope of work of UNCITRAL. The document publication numbers follow the same pattern as that used for the reports of working groups, discussed supra.
The same types of documents are prepared as working papers by the Secretariat for consideration by working groups. For example, document symbol A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86/Add.1 was assigned by the Secretariat to the Draft Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures. In symbol A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86/Add.1, "/WG.IV" refers to Working Group IV, the Working Group on Electronic Commerce, "/WP.86" indicates that the document is a working paper, in this case number 86, for consideration by the Working Group at one of its sessions, and "/Add. 1" indicates that the document was issued as an addendum to working paper 86. (click to view first page of A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86/Add.1)
Conference room papers are informal papers bearing the document symbol suffix "/CRP", which are intended for use at meetings of the Commission or of a working group, such as in-process drafts and proposals by working group members and observers. Conference room papers are distributed only to the participants at a meeting. They are not reproduced for general distribution and carry no authoritative value for research or citation.
Information series papers, which bear the document symbol suffix "/INF", typically contain the list of participants at Commission sessions or working group meetings and are not reproduced for general distribution.
The UNCITRAL Law Library staff prepare for the Commission an annual bibliography of writings related to the work of UNCITRAL. The bibliography includes references to books, articles, and dissertations in a variety of languages, classified according to subject. (click to view first page of A/CN.9/481). The UNCITRAL bibliography is available on the UNCITRAL Web site http://www.uncitral.org and is also reproduced in the UNCITRAL Yearbook. The document symbol used on the UNCITRAL bibliography follows the pattern used for documents submitted to the Commission, as discussed supra.
All substantive UNCITRAL documents are collected and reproduced in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Yearbook. This provides a complete record of travaux préparatoires for texts formulated by the Commission. The Yearbook, an essential research publication, includes Report of the Commission, selected General Assembly resolutions, studies and reports of working groups, and studies and drafts prepared by the Secretariat, as well as annexes containing the Bibliography of recent writings related to the work of UNCITRAL, and document check-lists. The Yearbook, along with select other UNCITRAL publications, is a United Nations Sales publication and may be obtained through your bookstore or directly from United Nations, Sales Section, in either New York or Geneva.
The UNCITRAL web page is an important resource for persons interested in the work of the Commission. UNCITRAL documents are placed on the UNCITRAL Web site http://www.uncitral.org shortly after their release. The web page, which is frequently updated, contains information regarding upcoming meetings and other activities of the Commission, Working Groups, and the Secretariat. In addition, the UNCITRAL web page is a valuable source for historical background information, such as consolidated bibliographies and documents submitted to previous Commission sessions. It is anticipated that such archival material will be added to the UNCITRAL web page on an ongoing basis.
Document symbols
UNCITRAL document symbols follow a pattern and refer to the body to which the document is submitted, rather than to the body that which originated the document. Each document carries the same document symbol and date in all language versions. In the following examples, "xxx" represents a number.
A/xx/17 refers to the Annual Report of the Commission, where "A" refers to the General Assembly, "/xx" refers to a particular session of the General Assembly, and "/17" identifies the document as supplement 17 to the Official Records of the General Assembly. (click to view first page of A/54/17)
A/CN.9/xxx refers to a document submitted to the Commission, where "A" refers to the General Assembly, "/CN.9" refers to UNCITRAL, which is the ninth commission reporting to the General Assembly, and "/xxx" is a consecutive number assigned to that particular document. (click to view first page of A/CN.9/483)
A/CN.9/WG.xx/WP.xxx refers to a working paper submitted to a working group of the Commission, where "A" refers to the General Assembly, "/CN.9" refers to UNCITRAL, "WG.xx" refers to a working group where ".xx" represents a roman numeral designating the particular working group, and "WP.xxx" designates the document as a working paper where ".xxx" is a consecutive number assigned to working papers of that particular working group. (click to view first page of A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86/Add.1)
In addition to the basic components of symbols listed above, a final component may be included to indicate designate the nature of the document. Such final symbols include ".../Add. x", which refers to an addendum; ".../Corr.", which refers to a corrigendum, not necessarily needed in all languages; ".../Rev.", which refers to a revision which replaces text previously issued; and ".../*" which refers to a document which was reissued for technical reasons. ".../SR" indicates that the document is a summary record of a meeting, associating individual speakers and their comments. Summary records are typically prepared for sessions of the Commission in the preparation of a legal text but not for sessions of the Commission that do not relate to its legislative function in the preparation of a particular draft text, nor are they prepared for meetings of working groups.