Translated from French, force majeure means higher power. In Russian law, this concept is consistent with international law.
The concept of force majeure in the contract appeared for a reason. It is very difficult to foresee all possible disasters, to provide for an earthquake, tsunami, meteorite fall or default in the contract. For this, the right provides for such a state that enables the parties to annul, terminate the contract concluded before the occurrence of force majeure, or to obtain release from liability for its improper performance (non-fulfillment).
It must be borne in mind that these insurmountable circumstances only allow you to avoid liability, but do not remove the basic obligations for the implementation of the contract. In other words, the party that has delayed the performance of the contract is obliged to fulfill the obligations, but it is exempted from payment of fines, penalties or forfeits, which are provided for in the contract or law.
The Civil Code clarifies force majeure or force majeure. Under the articles of the law, force majeure is an extraordinary and unavoidable circumstance that arose under these conditions. From this definition it follows that in force majeure there should be such elements as inevitability and extremeness.
The law does not have a complete list defining force majeure circumstances. In various specific cases, they can be your own. For example, the sender of the cargo and the carrier are exempted from liability if the non-use or non-delivery of the transport occurred due to force majeure or other natural disasters (fire, flood, drift), as well as military operations. It turns out that under the law various concepts are defined for transportation contracts: military operations, natural disasters, force majeure. However, judicial practice shows that often military operations are classified as force majeure in the same way as natural disasters.
According to the law, force majeure circumstances must meet the following criteria. First of all, they must be unforeseen. From this it follows that if either side foresaw the onset of a certain event, then this circumstance cannot be recognized as force majeure. The difficult financial situation of one or even several related enterprises cannot be attributed to this event. But global economic crisis phenomena can be recognized by circumstances of force majeure. Most often, the economic crisis is recognized as force majeure in international law. In Russia, courts are wary of various economic changes.
Force majeure circumstances should be extremely undesirable for both parties. This means that at the conclusion of the contract the parties wish full fulfillment of their obligations and do not want the occurrence of force majeure and other circumstances. However, it is very difficult to determine the interest in force majeure circumstances. It is clear that the owner of the insured property, which is not sold for a long time, may be beneficial if the destruction of the property occurs, at least with the help of a meteorite. However, it is very difficult to find out thoroughly whether the policyholder had an interest in the event of force majeure.
The inevitability indicates that the parties are not able to prevent force majeure circumstances caused by force majeure.
The circumstances that occurred during ordinary economic activity cannot be considered force majeure. Only exceptional, completely objective, directly independent of the will of the parties circumstances are considered as force majeure.