Duty to renegotiate and contract adaptation in case of hardship

This article examines the situations in which hardship takes place and offers a substantiated analysis about the desirability or necessity of certain remedies under domestic laws, model hardship clauses and international legal instruments. The authors submit that the duty to renegotiate as well as the remedies of contract adaptation and/or termination by a court or arbitral tribunal, although present in several legal systems, are neither necessary nor desirable under current trade practice and dispute resolution methods. The authors take the view that the traditional remedies, e.g. exemption of damages, duty to mitigate loss and/or avoidance of contract by a party's declaration, may serve, more adequately, the interests of contracting parties in hardship scenarios.