[For more current case annotated texts by this author, see Bernstein & Lookofsky, Understanding the CISG in Europe, 2d ed. (2003) and Lookofsky, Understanding the CISG in the USA, 2d ed. (2004).]

8. Non-Performance Caused by Other Party

308. Article 80 sets forth a simple and hardly controversial rule: for clearly, one party may not rely on a failure of the other party to perform to the extent that such failure was caused by the first party's own act or omission. [page 166]

Judging by its placement in Section 4, it seems that Article 80 was intended to serve as an adjunct to the exemptions rule in Article 79, hereunder Article 79(5).[1] For example, a buyer who himself 'frustrates' performance by the seller can neither demand specific performance nor avoid. Then again, Article 80 was hardly needed to reach such an obviously reasonable result.[2]