摘要：According to the principles of pacta sunt servanda the contract should remain intact as far aspossible. Nevertheless, it is highly likely that the parties might be unable to live up to theirobligations on ground of occurrence of some unpredictable events. Traditionally, suchphenomena may range from war, an earthquake, or a strike to tornadoes. Sanctions orembargoes are new instances of such phenomena that may make contract performance eitherimpossible or extensively onerous. These sanctions involve different legal consequences besideseconomic, political and social effects. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the main subject ofthe present article is only confined to examine the effects of sanctions on contractualobligations from the perspective of significant international instruments like UPICC, PECL,the CISG and the Iranian national law. In this respect, we have focused on some importantlegal concepts like force majeure and hardship and their relationships with the imposition ofsanctions. In so doing, after a brief overview of different kinds of sanctions from differentperspectives, we have concentrated on correlation with the above institutional norms and itseffects on contractual obligations. In the end, we address the available remedies arising out ofsanctions impositions.
