Substantive and Jurisdictional Aspects of International Contract Remedies: A Comment on Avery Katz's “Remedies for Breach of Contract Under the CISG”

This work, which comments on Avery Katz's paper on “Remedies under the CISG” (that is the United Nation Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods), focuses on the transactional design of contract remedies and on the legal and economic implications of contracts taking place in a transnational context, as opposed to a purely domestic context. The point is made that the most characterizing feature of international contracts governed by the CISG lies in the their multi-jurisdictional aspect, whereas other features, such as the mercantile character and the long-distance shipment, although relevant in the concrete assessment of transaction costs, do not significantly differentiate international contracts vis-à-vis domestic ones. In fact, the multi-jurisdictional aspect of international contracts justifies the adoption of default rules on remedies different from those applicable to domestic contracts not only with respect to contract avoidance, but also with respect to specific performance and monetary remedies.