Theory of Mitigation (A Comparative Study in UN Convention on International Sale of Goods and Iranian Law)

The party who is true to the contract cannot sit and wait for the other party to breach the contract, but must become active in order to minimize the loss or to prevent it. In otherwise, one defense that can be expressed by defendant of tort action (damager) is duty of aggrieved party to minimize the loss or to prevent it. Mitigation is the principle that a party who has suffered loss (from a tort or breach of contract) has to take reasonable action to minimize the amount of the loss suffered. This rule reflected in articles 77 and 80 UN Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG). In Iranian law, the rules of IQDAM, causation and LA-ZARAR are considered as the basics of mitigation of damage principle. Necessity of this research originates with globalization, movement of unification of contract law affects into national law systems. So, it is essential to clarify the needs and barriers of unification of contract law through a comparative study. In this paper, theory of mitigation in CISG and Iranian law is surveyed.