The "Detriment" as a Prerequisite for Fundamental Breach of Contract: Effect of Case Law on Making a Better Uniform Understanding of CISG Article 25

This study examined the Detriment as a Precondition for Fundamental Breach of contract. Fundamental breach is one of the key doctrines used by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods(CISG hereafter) -namely the doctrine of fundamental breach of contract provided for in article 25. Based on this article detriment means a substantial deprivation of a party of what he is entitled to expect under the contract. To determine whether or not the term detriment equal damages, article 25 CISG does not contain any definition or examples to clarify the term 'detriment'. This study explored this notion in light of the large number of courts' decisions related to article 25. The study ended to a certain fact that case law is the correct way to achieve uniformity in understanding CISG article 50, and to establish some directions, which hopefully will benefit to reach a uniform interpretation of the "detriment" notion.