Published Paper Details:

When a contractual party fails to fulfil the international sale of goods, the other party may utilise various remedies, including the right to dissolve the contract. All legal systems offer circumstances and restrictions under which a creditor may acquire and use this power when a debtor breaches a contract. Most importantly, the violation of contract must be substantial and severe. The Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods allows for fundamental breach of contract as the general reason for non-performance. General because it doesn't matter what the debtor does or doesn't do while breaking the contract; just that his acts qualify as a fundamental breach of contract. In that sense, the Convention sets three criteria for estimating this question: first, the debtor has breached the contract; second, it has resulted in such detriment to the other party that it substantially deprives him of what he is entitled to expect under the contract; and third, the debtor did not foresee such a damage as a consequence of breach of contract nor could a reasonable person of the same kind in the same circumstances. The Vienna Convention's idea of fundamental breach of contract is the outcome of decades of effort unifying the law of international sale of commodities. This method offered objective criteria and standards for evaluating the importance and severity of a contract violation, which are sufficient to trigger the creditor's right to cancel it. Several decades of effective implementation of the Convention led to the development of this idea in reality and to its growing use in international and state sources of law for the contract of sale of goods. Over time, legal systems converge in this area, which simplifies international trade and promotes economic growth.