The Extent of Similarity Required Between the Content of the Contract and its Performance

Abstract

Section 2 of the Contracts (Remedies for Breach of Contract) Law, 1970 defines a breach as “an act or omission contrary to the contract”. This general definition applies to any obligation in any contract, and to every form of its breach. Thus, a seller who has undertaken to deliver certain property at an agreed time and place is in breach of his obligation whether he delivers a different property than the agreed or a defective one, whether he makes the delivery after the agreed time or at a wrong place, and so forth. This abstraction of the notion of breach, and the application of similar rules to all kinds of breach (subject to some specific rules in specific Laws and in the Remedies Law itself), are prominent features of the law of contractual remedies and of contract law in general under Israeli legislation. This abstraction enables one to deal generally with subjects, that in other legal systems in various contexts are treated separately. The question discussed in this article refers to the degree of similarity required between the content of the contract and its actual performance. In other words, the question is whether a slight or trivial deviation from the contract's content is to be considered a breach.