Force majeure in Russian law is disclosed as unavoidable circumstances of an extraordinary nature that could not be provided for by the parties to the transaction and led to non-fulfillment of the contract. Suddenly arising environmental factors that fall within the definition lead to the release of the parties to the contract from compensation for losses to their opponent.
Force majeure in civil law is disclosed in the form of signs, essential features and criteria that indicate these circumstances. This method of consolidation cannot be estimated unambiguously. On the one hand, in fact, the descriptive nature of the definition is the need to prove or dispute the possibility of characterizing each specific extraordinary event that entailed the failure to fulfill the contract as a force majeure event in court.
On the other hand, having fixed the list of factors, the occurrence of which entails the release of one of the parties from liability, the legislator risks depriving the protection of subjects of law in the event of an unexpected list, but actually falling within the
definition of emergency situations.
Despite the absence of the mentioned list in the law, legal practice shows more definite patterns according to which force majeure takes place in the following situations:
- natural occurrence (e.g. earthquake, flood, fire, etc.);
- sociogenic factors: epidemics, strikes, terrorist attacks, military operations;
- the issuance of legislative acts by authorized persons entailing the loss of the ability of one of the parties to the contract to partially or fully prevent the losses of the other party to the transaction (quarantine, restriction of traffic);
- prohibitive acts of authorities (for example, border closure).
The Civil Code of the Russian Federation also contains a list of factors that cannot be attributed to force majeure circumstances. This includes unlawful behavior of the debtor’s counterparties or the lack of financial resources of the latter in the amount necessary to fulfill obligations under the contract, as well as the absence of the necessary type of goods on the market. In addition, an analysis of judicial practice shows that the bankruptcy of a legal entity does not apply to the described type of circumstances. Thus, if the factor related to
entrepreneurial risk has become the reason for non-fulfillment of obligations under the contract
, the guilty person bears
material liability.Force majeure entails various consequences, depending on the branch of legislation governing relations affected by emergency.
So, for example, in labor law in the event of an unforeseen situation of this kind, an employee whose actions did not reveal violations of instructions that could not, within the framework of official powers, reasonably prevent the occurrence of fatal consequences, is exempted from liability.
The force majeure circumstances in the tax sphere leads to the removal of guilt from the subject for the commission of a tax offense.