Legal considerations in times of COVID-19: “Force majeure has gone viral”

Abstract

Due to the social lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, invocation of force majeure as an event that frustrates the performance of the obligations in a contract has become commonplace. The author analyzes the elements that make up the concept of force majeure, the types of force majeure, the cases in which it can be applied, and the notion of impossibility because of non-attributable cause. He also examines the attribution of liability between the parties of a contract when the obligations of said contract become impossible, and ponders if force majeure can free the parties of liability.