Abstract:
The rapid growth of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has undoubtedly impacted
business relations worldwide, leading to significant consequences caused by the non performance of international commercial contracts. Given the circumstances, the current
study scrutinises how the international commercial law can provide relief for non performance of contractual obligations due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis
through legal instruments such as the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the
International Sale of Goods (CISG) and UNIDROIT Principles of International
Commercial Contracts (UNIDROIT Principles). This research was conducted following
the doctrinal legal research methodology. Examining the CISG and the UNIDROIT
Principles revealed that the legal concepts such as force majeure and hardship could be
invoked to grant relief. The study finds that the COVID-19 Pandemic will provide the
legal basis to invoke these measures depending on different factors such as the duration
of impediment, allocation of contractual risks, causal link and the date of signing the
contract. In conclusion, the relief provided by these international instruments is likely to
be constructed based on the judicial precedent established during comparable
circumstances in the past, such as the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS).
