The Impact of Force Majeure on Contracts for the International Sale of Commercial Goods Under Art. 79 of the CISG

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) aims to harmonise inter0 national trade law by providing unified rules for sales contracts across its 970member countries, as of April 2025. Despite its wide adoption, the CISG’s approach to non0performance and liability differs markedly from domestic legal systems, particularly those based on civil law traditions. The CISG provides that the debtor failing to perform their obligations must compensate for the loss, unless exempted under Article 79, which introduces the concept of “impediment beyond the debtor’s control” as a basis for exemption. For this exemption to apply, the impediment must be unforeseeable, unavoidable, and the direct cause of the failure to perform. However, these criteria make its application rare in practice, while its requirements have been satisfied in only a limited number of cases. This study examines Article 79 CISG in detail, exploring its stringent criteria and the challenges it presents in practice. Furthermore, the paper will assess Article 79’s effectiveness in addressing force majeure and hardship scenarios, despite the absence of explicit references to these concepts within the CISG text.