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Cisg Article 79: Exemption Of Performance, And Adaptation Of Contract Through Interpretation Of Reasonableness－Full Of Sound And Fury, But Signifying Something, Yasutoshi Ishida

Pace International Law Review

Article 79 of the CISG provides that “[a] party is not liable for a failure to perform any of his obligations” if the party has encountered a certain impediment defined therein. It was once depicted as “the Convention’s least successful part of the half-century of work.” It has been thirty years since the CISG took effect. However, the interpretation of Article 79 is as old and unsuccessful as ever. For one thing, it has long been interpreted against our intuition, not to exempt a party from specific performance claims. For another, the controversy has long continued unsettled over whether a …