EXTRAORDINARY CONTRACT LAW OR HOW TO SETTLE CONTRACTUAL PROBLEMS DURING A PANDEMIC Cover Image

ИЗВЪНРЕДНО ДОГОВОРНО ПРАВО ИЛИ КАК ДА УРЕДИМ ДОГОВОРНИТЕ ПРОБЛЕМИ ПО ВРЕМЕ НА ПАНДЕМИЯ
EXTRAORDINARY CONTRACT LAW OR HOW TO SETTLE CONTRACTUAL PROBLEMS DURING A PANDEMIC

Author(s): Pascal Pichonnaz
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, History of Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Canon Law / Church Law, EU-Legislation, Sociology of Law, Commercial Law, Court case, Sharia Law, Comparative Law, Administrative Law, Roman law
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Contract law; relational contract; impossibility; clausula rebus sic stantibus; hardship; duty to renegotiate; group negotiation; extension of the binding nature; remissio mercedis.

Summary/Abstract: Despite the significant number of measures taken by the Swiss Federal Council (Government) in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, problems regarding the economic balance between contracting parties have not been subject to specific interventions. The article points out that an individualistic approach, in particular through the rules of unforeseeability, is partly unsatisfactory in view of the systemic issues at stake and the risk that the burden of all additional individual actions represents for the judicial system as a whole. The author stresses the importance of a duty of renegotiation between the parties, based on the rules of good faith in business, the content of which must take into account a dynamic approach, inspired by historical experience. The article then suggests substantive and procedural rules for an extraordinary contract law to deal with systemic contractual imbalances. A relational approach to the contract, as well as a more solidarity-based conception of it, must lead to renegotiations and group settlements, which are relatively binding for the contracting parties, or even to solutions imposed by the authorities as a last resort.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 485-519
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Bulgarian