Rebus sic Stantibus: A Comparative Survey
AbstractThis article is a studied comparative survey of a principle of contract law in the Civil Law of European countries, vis-a-vis the Common Law of the Anglo-American system of law. This principle, known as "Rebus sic Stantibus" means that contracts under Civil Law are concluded with the implied condition that they are binding only so long as there are no major changes in the circumstances which the contracting parties had within their contemplation at the time they entered into such a contract. The author threads into the article, the parallel development of the doctrine of frustration in Common Law contracts with its necessarily vitiating elements within the concepts of "impossibility" and now "impracticality" of performance of the terms of the contract in contract law. |