The Role of Courts in Determining the Cumulation of Contractual Remedies under Iranian Law and International Instruments

Abstract

Contractual remedies are among the principal legal mechanisms for securing performance, compensating the consequences of contractual breach, and maintaining an appropriate balance between the interests of contracting parties. One of the central issues in this field concerns whether multiple remedies may be cumulated in response to a single breach and the extent to which courts may recognize, restrict, or reject such cumulation. This study adopts an analytical and comparative approach to examine the role of courts in determining the cumulation of contractual remedies under Iranian law and international instruments. The main question is whether the aggrieved party may simultaneously or successively invoke remedies such as specific performance, termination, damages, agreed damages, and the right of retention, or whether the exercise of one remedy necessarily excludes another. The findings indicate that Iranian law lacks a comprehensive and explicit general rule governing the cumulation of contractual remedies. Existing provisions sometimes suggest a sequential relationship between remedies, while in other instances they permit cumulative application. By contrast, international instruments generally provide a more coherent remedial framework and tend to recognize the cumulation of compatible remedies. The principal criteria that courts should apply include compatibility of legal effects, independence of the compensated loss, prohibition of double recovery, respect for party autonomy, proportionality between the seriousness of the breach and the remedy, and prevention of abuse of rights. The study concludes that the preferable principle in Iranian law should be the permissibility of cumulating compatible contractual remedies, unless their concurrent application is legally or logically inconsistent, prohibited by law or contract, or results in compensation exceeding the actual loss. Adoption of this approach could contribute to greater consistency in judicial practice, improved predictability in contractual disputes, and closer alignment between Iranian contract law and contemporary developments in international commercial law.