The buyer's remedies for seller's non-conforming delivery : a comparative study under English law, the 1980 UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and Shi'ah law.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine Shiah law, as an undeveloped systen-4 in order to identify if it could be applied to modem sale transactions. The focus is on remedies in which Shiah jurists have done a great deal of work. The subject is first examined under English law and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (as two developed systems) to identify the issues which have to be dealt with and then under Shiah law in depth. An extensive examination shows that current Shiah law suffers from substantive gaps and uncertainty. It is suggested that the current situation is due to lack of applying an efficient methodology. Instead of dealing with the legal rules in respect of concrete issues, Shiah jurists tend to deal with traditional as well as hypothetical cases to derive further detailed rules. To present a sensible picture of this system, it is suggested that the law should be analysed in the light of studying developed systems. Relying on this method, attempts are made to systematise the relevant rules and answer the various questions these two modem systems deal with. Shiah law is then compared with English law and the Convention to highlight the existing gaps in Shiah law and to assess how it could be applied to modem sales. Comparative assessment of the three systems shows that while in English law primacy is given to damages and specific performance is rarely awarded, the Convention gives significance to both. Similarly, English law seems to permit termination more easily than the Convention. But unlike the Convention, it does not recognise price reduction as a separate remedy. Overall, it is shown that Shiah law is closer to the Convention than to English law. It attaches significance to both damages and specific performance, and entitles the buyer to reduce the contract price, but permits termination more easily than the Convention and less easily than English law. It is concluded that because of substantive gaps and uncertainty in current Shiah law it is not an appropriate system to govern modem sale transactions, but if the suggested methodology is applied it could be developed and fill in the gaps.