Specific Performance – and the International Unification of Sales Law

Abstract

Over the past decades, several approaches have been tried in the process of the unification of contract law to regulate the entitlement to performance in kind, but there is still no generally accepted solution. The Vienna Sales Convention, like its predecessors, resolves the question by a quasi-conflict of laws rule, essentially making the award of specific performance dependent upon the law of the forum, thereby undermining the results of unification. Other sources, such as the UNIDROIT Principles, provide autonomous rules that specify in detail the conditions under which it may be claimed. The Draft Common European Sales Law, continues to attach primary importance to the provision of performance in kind, obviously also bearing in mind the interests of consumers.