Exemptions from liability in the scope of the CISG Art. 79 with comparison to Turkish Code of Obligations

CISG Art. 79 which is about exemption from liability in the event of an unforeseeable and insurmountable impediment arising beyond the debtor's control is one of the most controversial regulations in the Convention. The examples of exemption from contractual liability in domestic laws bring out the theories such as impossibility, force majeure, frustration, impracticability and hardship. Apart from such theories, CISG Art. 79 tries to bring an autonomous solution for the sales contract in the event of failure to perform due to an impediment. The significance of CISG Art. 79 for international sales deserves a detailed analysis in this subject. The disputes arising from contractual liability and exemptions in international sales law are challenging and attractive subjects. The subjects of liability and exemption are closely connected to each other. For this reason, in the scope of this thesis, the liability regime of the domestic laws which have an influence on the embodiment of the CISG are analyzed in the first chapter. The theories about exemption in these domestic laws are also tried to be summarized for comparison of the CISG Art. 79 and the solutions in the domestic laws. In the second chapter, the requirements to be met for exemption from liability are closely examined. With this examination, the application area of CISG Art. 79 is tried to be enlightened. Basically for an exemption from liability, there must be an impediment that causes failure to perform any obligations of the debtor. So there must be an impediment and also a causality element in the first step. The impediment must carry some conditions. It must be beyond the control of the debtor and such impediment must be unforeseeable and insurmountable. When all the requirements for CISG Art. 79 are met, the debtor has a relief for the non-performance. But the scope of the exemption has critical importance. For clarifying such importance, in the last chapter of the thesis, the consequences of the application of CISG Art. 79 are presented. CISG Art. 79 only gives the debtor a relief for compensation of the damages arising from the non-performance of the contract. Other remedies of creditor are not affected by the exemption of liability. So the relation between the exemption of the debtor and the remedies that can be asserted by the creditor is closely examined.