TEMPESTIVIDAD Y CONGRUENCIA DE LA ACEPTACIÓN DE LA OFERTA EN EL DERECHO ESPAÑOL Y EN EL DERECHO UNIFORME.

Abstract

This paper's object is to study two of the classic requirements that offer acceptance must meet, both from the standpoint of Spanish law and from the standpoint of uniform law, with the goal of tracing the evolution that these requirements have undergone in order to adapt to international trade's innate demands for flexibility. These requirements are the timeliness and congruence of offer acceptance, by whose virtue acceptance must be made at an opportune time and abide by the elements contained in the offer. The revision of these rules has been made quite clear in the wording of the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods, the Unidroit Principles and the Principles of European Contract Law, texts that have striven to infuse the utmost flexibility into the traditional con (Trabajo recibido el 30-09-05 y aceptado para su publicación el 2-11-2006) figuration of the two rules mentioned herein above, such that, without hindering the general requirements of timeliness and congruence of offer acceptance, it is possible to preserve the contract in those cases where both parties are interested in preserving it.