Hardship under theUnidroitPrinciples of International Commercial Contracts: a reassessment from uniform law

García Long S. · Uniform Law Review (2025) · DOI: 10.1093/ulr/unaf046

Resumen

The Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC) is one of the most successful instruments in the world. One relevant feature is their hardship model. It has been followed by other international instruments such as the Principles of European Contract Law and the Draft Common Frame of Reference and has even been incorporated into various Civil Codes over the years (Argentina, France, China, and Belgium). While it is an indisputable success story, what needs to be analysed now is whether this success will continue in the future. Therefore, this article focuses on highlighting the achievements of the UPICC hardship model—such as the use of the term ‘hardship’, the conditions for hardship, its incorporation into various Civil Codes, and the possibility of agreeing otherwise—but it also underlines the aspects that need to be improved in a future revision of the UPICC, such as limiting it to supervening events, adding the condition of ‘to have avoided or overcome it’, solving problems with renegotiation and adaptation, and limiting the legitimacy to claim. This reassessment is necessary for the UPICC to remain up to date with the changing needs of international trade and thus continue this success story in relation to the UPICC hardship model. © The Author(s) (2025). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Unidroit. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights)

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú