V Preface

This study, accepted by the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel as a PhD thesis in the spring of 2022, has been updated with the available literature and case law as of June 2024.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my doctoral advisor Professor Ulrich G. Schroeter. The academic freedom I enjoyed while working for him allowed me to explore research topics independently, challenge prevailing opinions, and develop my scholarly perspectives in an encouraging and supportive environment. I thank Professor Corinne Widmer Lüchinger and Pascal Hachem for their helpful comments and contributions to my dissertation committee.

Additionally, I wish to thank Professor Reinhard Zimmermann for his early support during my studies in Freiburg and his interest in my research. Both of my stays at the Max Planck Institute for comparative and international private law Hamburg were invaluable to me due to the extraordinary and generous group of scholars who carry out research there. Furthermore, I am grateful to Professor Ingeborg Schwenzer who introduced me to the complexities of academic work on the CISG at her chair between 2014 and 2017.

Ben Köhler, Linus Dethloff-Wieland, Julian Juhasz, and Rory Price offered insightful feedback on specific chapters. Alissa Palumbo Högger provided linguistic revisions of this study. While it is difficult to fully capture their impact on this specific work, I am deeply indebted to Nadja Harraschain, Alexander Ruckteschler, Steffen Lindemann, David Tebel, and many others in the Vis Moot community. Their influence has profoundly shaped my approach to legal reasoning and argumentation, far more than they may realize.

Most importantly, I thank my family, and my wife Sita, whose unwavering support, patience, and encouragement have been the bedrock of this endeavor.