Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration: The Case of Suspension of Performance
International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4, p. 863, 2009
34 Pages Posted: 22 Nov 2009 Last revised: 27 May 2021
Date Written: November 19, 2009
Abstract
Despite much attention to the controversial lex mercatoria, international commercial arbitration remains underanalysed as a venue for contract law unification. This article considers a specific case of substantive contract law in arbitration, the remedy of suspension of performance: When will one party’s non-performance enable the other party to withhold performance without terminating the contract? In domestic laws, suspension of performance is governed by clearly-defined doctrines; however, it remains unclear whether it constitutes a general principle of international law. This article places suspension in a comparative context, then analyses the published arbitral awards for indications of arbitrators’ preferences.
This article was awarded the BIICL/ICLQ Young Scholar prize for the best article by author under the age of 40.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation