Every contract has its unique terms and agreements that occupy a massive part of the document’s content. Most of the time, the contract has two sides of obligations, but periodically one of the parties violates the document’s elements. The terms of the agreement are essential if none of the parties want the breach to appear. If one of the participants does not understand the consequences of a breach, he can ruin the contract and leave both sides dissatisfied. That is the reason why contracts play a massive role in business.
Types of breach
There are different types of breaches, for example, material, non-material, and anticipatory repudiation. A material breach is substantial; at the same time, a non-material breach involves minor fails. The parties often do not perform their duties ideally, so there should be an understanding of what kind of violation is material and non-material. That depends on several points: the possibility of fixing the problem and compensation by the violator and the loss of benefit by the non-breaching side. Anticipatory repudiation is the breach that takes place when one of the parties that signed the contract declares that they will not continue to perform their contract’s elements because there is a big chance that the breach will happen in the future. It is important to say that “any statements made before the parties signed the contract are not part of the contract unless those statements are memorialized in the contract itself” (Johnson, L., & Lau, T., 2012, p. 205). If the statement is not written in the contract, it is not the reason for the breach.
Lausanne Peace Treaty
The material breach can take place in different situations and types of contracts, starting with local cases and ending with international agreements, like the Lausanne Peace Treaty. Tulun T. E. in Consequences Of Material Breach Of The Lausanne Peace Treaty (2022) states: “Demilitarization is the essential precondition of Greek sovereignty over these islands. Greece, in this respect, cannot unilaterally reverse this status under any pretext “(p. 1-2). In this particular case, the Greek spokesperson declared they would never demilitarize the Aegean islands because of the Turkish Aegean army. According to Article 13 of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, the eastern islands of the Aegean are demilitarized. That means Greece could not carry troops and build fortifications on the islands. If the material breach occurs, the aggrieved party does not have to keep their side of obligations so that they can end the contract. Also, they can sue for material losses if they occur in that situation.
Uniform Commercial Code
The Uniform Commercial Code is an all-inclusive set of laws that governs all merchant transactions in the United States of America. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, the buyer “has a right of inspection” (Saylor Academy, 2012). That means that if the goods do not match the contract elements, the buyer has three options. He can take all of the goods, reject the part, and accept the rest, or he can reject everything. If the third scenario happens, the UCC gives a chance to fix the problem.
Contracts play a vital role in the business area and, as it turns out, are essential in global problems and local questions. People who sign contracts need to understand the contract’s elements and follow the rules. They need to recognize the vital aspects of them and how to take into account the considerations that matter to them when signing the contracts. In a bad scenario, ignorance of the law can make a person not see the elementary tricks and traps found in contracts.
References
Johnson, L., & Lau, T. (2012). The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business. Saylor Academy.
Saylor Academy. (2012). Saylor.org BUS205: “Breach of Contract” [Video]. Youtube.
Tulun, T. E. (2022). Consequences Of Material Breach Of The Lausanne Peace Treaty. OSF Preprints. Web.