Remedies for Breach of Contract under the 1980 Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)

This contribution deals with the issue of remedies for breach of contract under the 1980 Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (“CISG”), a highly successful piece of uniform substantive legislation, which sets forth uniform rules governing international sales, to be applied to contracts for the international sale of goods whenever the criteria for the application of the Convention are met. First, it addresses the question as to what rationale underlies the unification of the remedial rules applicable to contracts for the international sale of goods and highlights the distinction between the right to a specific remedy and its judicial enforcement. Subsequently, it points out the close connection between the notion of breach of contract and the alternative remedial schemes available to the aggrieved party and focus on the central role to that effect of the notion of “fundamental breach” under the CISG. The central part of the paper provides an overview of remedies under the CISG, and thus considers the possibility for the aggrieved party to avoid the contract, the availability of remedies leading to the performance of the contractual arrangements as originally agreed upon, or as adapted in view of the non-compliance with the original arrangements, and the possibility to obtain monetary relief. In the final Chapter the attempt is made to sum up the results of the analysis previously conducted and to draw some conclusions