Reaction of French legal system toward fundamental change of circumstances

Abstract

Traditionally, in the legal system of France, the fundamental change of circumstances at the time of conclusion of a contract and its impact on the contract and parties to the contract raised two reactions. 1) A legal rule which specifically pertains to the fundamental change of circumstances at the time of conclusion of the contract, namely “imprévision”, which was mostly applied in administrative contracts 2) the other concepts which are not specified to the fundamental change of circumstances at the time of conclusion of the contract, however, they were applied in specific conditions, to avoid inappropriate results arising change of circumstances at the time of conclusion of the contract. Finally, As a result of the efforts of doctrine and the judicial precedent in France, the French Civil Code has been amended in 2016; so that the imprévision theory has been explicitly recognized as a rule of general rules of contracts in private contracts. This research will provide a comprehensive picture of how French legal system reacts toward the fundamental change of circumstances by means of analyzing these reactions and law amendments.

Keywords

• imprévision
• change of circumstances
• sanctity of contract
• adjustment
• renegotiation