Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration: the Case of Suspension of Performance

Joshua D H Karton, University of Cambridge

Abstract

Despite much attention to the controversial lex mercatoria, international commercial arbitration remains underanalysed as a venue for contract law unification. This article considers a specific case of substantive contract law in arbitration, the remedy of suspension of performance: When will one party’s nonperformance enable the other party to withhold performance without terminating the contract? In domestic laws, suspension of performance is governed by clearly-defined doctrines; however, it remains unclear whether it constitutes a general principle of international law. This article places suspension in a comparative context, then analyses the published arbitral awards for indications of arbitrators’ preferences.