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Rights And Duties Of Parties

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Rights and Duties of Parties in FOB and CIF Contracts 1.0 Introduction Although governed by the general law of sale, international sales contracts contain trade terms which are not customary in domestic trade and which define many of the obligations of the parties. Each of the common types of contract is recognised by custom as having legal incidents and classification of the contract may therefore affect the rights and duties of the parties. The most common are ‘free on board’-‘f.o.b.’-and ‘cost, insurance and freight’-‘c.i.f’, although there are several variants to these basic terms, all of which place different rights and duties on the parties to the sales contract . This chapter will define the f.o.b. and c.i.f. contract and then examine the legal obligations and rights of the buyer and seller under an f.o.b. and c.i.f. contract and then point out the differences inherent between both. 1.1.1 Free On Board Contracts (FOB) The first known case that used “free on board a foreign ship” dates back as far back as the nineteenth century. This term was never the result of legislation, but developed alongside merchants’ usage and customs. It is in fact utmostly difficult to provide a single definition that will apply to all different types of f.o.b. contract. In English law, Devlin J in Pyrene and Co Ltd v Scindia Navigation Co. Ltd was the first to give judicial recognition to three different forms of f.o.b. contracts. Sassoon named these as the “strict”, the “additional

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