Re-imagining the Doctrines of Hardship and Exemption/Force Majeure under the cisg and unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts

Abstract

The doctrines of hardship, frustration, exemption and force majeure are all exceptions to the doctrine of mandatory enforceability of commercial contracts. However, cisg and the unidroit Principles followed different approaches in the development of impossibility jurisprudence under commercial contracts. The aim of this paper is to critically inquire whether the silence about doctrine of hardship under the cisg can conveniently be cured by the exemption provision of article 79 cisg, and whether the provision for hardship under the unidroit Principles can be used to fill the lacuna created under the cisg. This paper will utilise doctrinal research methodology with comparative approach in addressing the issues arising from the subject matter of the paper.