Pacta Sunt Servanda alongside with Autonomy of Choice is the basic principle of contract law – a concluded contract is a law for the parties and they are obliged to fulfil their obligations in the manner specified by the contract and are responsible for fulfilling those obligations. The contracting parties cannot unilaterally change the contractual provisions or waive the fulfilment of the contract.
Under normal circumstances, the other party may initiate appropriate legal proceedings against a non-performing or improperly performing contractual party.
However, under the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not necessarily the case. If the contract itself does not provide a solution to such circumstances, one of the following two legal institutes can be called upon.
Force Majeure has been elaborated in several places by the Law of Contract and Torts, mainly as an impossibility of performance not attributable to either party.
The same law regulates the institute of (substantially) Changed Circumstances, which departs from the principle of contractual obligation if, after its conclusion, circumstances have changed significantly so that it becomes difficult for one of the parties to fulfil its obligations.
Both institutes also contain certain limitations – a force majeure cannot be invoked by a party if such impossibility took place after his becoming unduly late, while the changed circumstances cannot be invoked by a party who was obliged to take into account those circumstances at the time of the conclusion of the contract or the party could have avoided or overcome them.
From the content of a specific contract and all the other circumstances depends whether the COVID-19 pandemic will be of a Force Majeure or (substantially) Changed Circumstances and must be valued on a case-by-case basis.
The answer to this question will further determine what is the best legal path for you to protect your rights.
In connection to this, if you have concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on your contractual relationships, please contact our resolution team disputes, attorney Milos Milosevic milos.milosevic@zslaw.rs, and Ivan Ljubisavljevic ivan.ljubisavljevic@zslaw.rs, respectively email office@zslaw.rs.
COVID-19 sa aspekta ugovornog prava Srbije – Viša sila ili bitno promenjene okolnosti?
Pacta Sunt Servanda uz autonomiju volje predstavlja osnovno načelo ugovornog prava – zaključeni ugovor je zakon za ugovorne strane a one su dužne ispuniti svoje obaveze na način određen ugovorom i odgovorne su za ispunjenje tih obaveza. Ugovorne strane ne mogu jednostrano menjati ugovorne odredbe niti odustati od ispunjenja ugovora.
U redovnim okolnostima, protiv ugovorne strane koja ne ispunjava ili neuredno ispunjava svoje ugovorne obaveze druga ugovorna strana može pokrenuti odgovarajući sudski postupak.
Međutim, u vanrednim okolnostima izazvanim pandemijom COVID-19, to nužno nije slučaj. Ukoliko sam ugovor ne daje rešenje za ovakve vanredne situacije, moguća je neposredna primena jednog od dva sledeća pravna instituta.
Viša sila na nekoliko mesta razrađena je Zakonom o obligacionim odnosima uglavnom kao nemogućnost ispunjenja za koju ne odgovara ni jedna strana.
Isti zakon uređuje i institut bitno promenjenih okolnosti kojim se odstupa od principa obaveznosti ugovora ako su se posle njegovog zaključenja okolnosti značajno izmenile tako da je jednoj od ugovornih strana postalo teško da ispuni svoje obaveze.
Oba instituta sadrže i određena ograničenja pa se tako na višu silu ne može pozivati strana ukoliko je ista nastupila posle njenog dolaska u skrivljenu docnju, dok se na promenjene okolnosti ne može pozivati strana koja je bila dužna da u vreme zaključenja ugovora uzme u obzir te okolnosti ili ih je mogla izbeći ili savladati.
Od sadržine konkretnog ugovora ali i ostalih okolnosti zavisi da li će pandemija COVID-19 imati karakter više sile ili bitno promenjene okolonosti i mora se ceniti od slučaja do slučaja.
Od ove dijagnoze će dalje zavisiti pravni put kojim najbolje možete zaštiti svoja prava.
S tim u vezi, ukoliko imate nedoumice oko uticaja pandemije COVID-19 na Vaše ugovorne odnose, obratite se našem timu za rešavanje sporova, adv Milošu Miloševiću milos.milosevic@zslaw.rs i Ivanu Ljubisavljeviću ivan.ljubisavljevic@zslaw.rs odnosno na email office@zslaw.rs.