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"Force Majeure" Predictable Responses to Unpredictable Events

South China suffered widespread devastation as a result of an unusually heavy snow and ice storm during the Spring Festival Season of 2008, hampering normal lives when water, electrical and food supplies were disrupted, causing great losses to farmers and businessmen.

These kinds of losses are often referred to in legal documents and contracts as “force majeure” or “the will of God.” Contracts or agreements often include “force majeure” clauses that are used to define the risks and countermeasures when natural disasters or some kinds of other unpredictable disasters occur.

From the perspective of lawyers, parties in many contracts must bear great losses arising from force majeure.

The legal purpose for setting up “force majeure” clause lies in two aspects: the interests of a party with no fault can be protected from unpredictable disasters; and, it reminds parties to fully consider future risks and provide some solutions so a contract is not disrupted and performance is assured.

Force majeure refers to disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, fires, storms, sandstorms, snowstorms, volcanic eruptions, snow slides, land slides and war, terrorism, riots, strikes and other unforeseeable events that prevent the performance of contracted parties, things that are not preventable and that are unavoidable.

According to the Contract Law of China, “If, due to force majeure, one party fails to perform a contract, the relevant evidence shall be submitted to prove the failure is caused by the force majeure in fact.” In the case of the snow or ice storm in South China, the party failing to perform according to the terms of a contract shall provide evidence of this to the offended party.

The Contract Law says: “The party shall timely inform of the other party should he fail to perform a contract, so as to reduce the losses; the other party shall timely take measures to prevent or reduce losses once he receives the message about the force majeure The losses caused by no timely countermeasures shall not be compensated.”

The Contract Law also specifies: “Unless otherwise additionally specified in law, the liability for the losses due to force majeure shall be partially or totally eliminated; if, force majeure happened during one party’s purposefully delayed contract performance period, the liability shall not be eliminated.” So the in-fact influence of force majeure to the contract performance is the key to judge the liability of the party failing to perform the contract.

But force majeure cannot become an excuse under any circumstances for failing to perform a contract; it must really cause essential influence to the party’s performance within the contract period. If during the contract period, the liability for the party failing to perform under a contract because of the South China snowstorm can be partially eliminated since nature stops normal life, not to say traffic flows, electrical, food and water supplies or other unpredictable difficulties.

Wang Jihong , Lawyer

Professional fields: Urban Infrastructure

Development and

Real Estate

Environmental and Resource Protection

Government

Legal Affairs

Ms. Wang is a renowned lawyer in the field of urban infrastructure development in China. She has offered legal services to a number of national major construction projects, especially concession projects. These projects cover multiple fields, including public utilities construction projects, rail transportation projects, highway and bridge projects, energy projects and city planning projects such as CCTV New Site, The National Museum of China and the National Indoor Stadium.

Tel: +86 10 8225 5610  

E-mail: jwbj@vtlaw.cn

2008年春节前夕，中国南方大部分地区以及西北地区东部，遭遇了历史上罕见的持续大范围低温、雨雪和冰冻天气，其范围之广、程度之深令人震惊。严重的灾情给人们的社会生产、生活造成了很大影响，由此引发的电力中断、交通堵塞等一系列事故使许多合同都无法正常履行，给合同当事人造成很大的经济损失。为了合理分配自然灾害带来的风险，政府在法律上设计了“不可抗力”制度。

在法律上确立不可抗力制度的意义在于：一方面，有利于保护无过错当事人的利益；另一方面，促使人们在从事交易时能够充分预测未来可能发生的风险，并在风险发生后合理解决问题，达到回避风险、鼓励交易的目的。

法律意义上的“不可抗力”是指不能预见、不能避免和不能克服的客观情况。但是，“不可抗力”的范围是随着人类活动范围的扩大而不断变化的，除了大自然的影响外，经济活动的愈加频繁和社会矛盾的日益复杂以及战争、罢工等社会异常事件也对其有影响。通常情况下，“不可抗力”事件主要包括地震、海啸、台风、洪水、蝗灾、风暴、冰雹、沙尘暴、火山爆发、山体滑坡、雪崩、泥石流等自然灾害，以及战争、罢工、骚乱、暴动等社会异常事件。2008年春节前夕，中国南方大部分地区以及西北地区东部遭遇的持续大范围低温、雨雪和冰冻天气，对于因此而无法正常履行合同的当事人来说就属于“不可抗力”事件。

《中华人民共和国合同法》中规定，当事人一方因“不可抗力”而不能履行合同的，应在合理期限内提供证明。比如，2008年初中国南方遭遇了冰雪灾害，当事人如果要证明自己不能履行合同确系灾害所致，则需要向对方当事人提供足够的有说服力的证明。

《中华人民共和国合同法》还规定：当事人一方因“不可抗力”而不能履行合同的，应及时通知对方，以减轻可能给对方造成的损失。当事人一方违约后，对方应当采取适当措施防止损失的扩大；没有采取适当措施致使损失扩大的，不得就扩大的损失要求赔偿。此外，因“不可抗力”不能履行合同的，根据不可抗力的影响部分或全部免除责任，但法律另有规定的除外；在当事人延迟履行合同后发生的“不可抗力”不能免除责任。例如，双方当事人在雪灾发生前订立合同，在合同履行期限内，由冰雪所导致的电力中断、交通堵塞等事故可能致使合同根本不可能履行、不可能完全履行或是不可能按时履行，那就要根据雪灾对合同履行的实质影响来判断当事人能否免责。

但是，“不可抗力”并不能在任何情况下都成为当事人的免责抗辩事由，只有对当事人的义务履行造成了实质影响的才可以。2008年初中国南方遭遇的冰雪灾害使受灾地区的交通基本处于瘫痪状态，电力设备严重损坏，人们的生产、生活甚至连生存都难以保证，更何谈合同的完全履行呢？当然，合同当事人只能在灾害造成损失的范围内免责，如果灾害发生在合同约定的履行期限届满之后，那就不能以“不可抗力”作为免责的抗辩事由。