Breach of contract: The draft code on obligations and contracts and the law on obligations

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the regulation of termination of contract due to a breach in the Yugoslav Law on Obligations (1978) and the Draft Code on Obligations and Contracts (1969), prepared by Mihailo Konstantinović. In the area of termination of contract, Konstantinović's primary source of inspiration was the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods (ULIS, 1964). The regulation of breach of contract in the Draft Code is not based on a uniform notion of breach of contract, rather, there are different types of breaches: non-performance (debtor's default), defective performance, and impossibility of performance. The Legislative Commission, making changes to the Draft Code, retained its structure, including the regulation of different types of breaches, but made changes with regard to termination of contract. Compared to modern model laws, these changes represent some of the key shortcomings of the regulation of this area in the Law on Obligations.

Keywords

• breach of contract
• termination of contract
• fundamental breach of contract
• debtor's default
• impossibility of performance of contract