Pasivos y remedios por el cambio de circunstancias a causa del COVID-19 en los proyectos de construcción alrededor del mundo

AutorHe Wei
CargoA candidate of PhD of Architect of University of Strathclyde of UK, and a senior international contract manager of China Gezhouba Corporation Oversea Investment Company
Páginas367-382
367
Derecho & Sociedad
Asociación Civil
55
Revista Derecho & Sociedad, N° 55 / pp. 367 - 382
FECHA DE RECEPCIÓN: 20/07/2019
FECHA DE APROBACIÓN: 04/11/2020
Liabilities and remedies of the changed
circumstances caused by the COVID-19 in
construction projects around the world
Pasivos y remedios por el cambio de circunstancias a causa del
COVID-19 en los proyectos de construcción alrededor del mundo
He Wei*
University of Strathclyde
Abstract:
Essentially, the loss suered by the global construction industry during the time when
the COVID-19 is spread is not caused by that pandemic itself but caused by a changed
circumstance which mainly resulted by anti-COVID-19 policy or law conducted by dierent
jurisdictions.
Where contract keeps silent in this regard, legal solution should be made by contemplating
the law in dierent jurisdictions toward changed circumstances, which commonly includes
situations where performance of contract become more onerous or impossible, and taking
account of the factual environment which determines or impacts the changed circumstance.
This paper, from a comparative law perspective, discusses and concludes the doctrine of
changed circumstance in some typical jurisdictions, and, by taking consideration of law and
fact, provides some approaches and potential legal solutions to deal with that loss.
Resumen:
Esencialmente, la pérdida sufrida por la industria de la construcción global durante el tiempo
en cual se propaga el COVID-19 no es causada por la pandemia en sí, sino por un cambio de
circunstancias que resultó principalmente de la política o ley anti-COVID-19 llevada a cabo
por diferentes jurisdicciones.
Cuando el contrato guarda silencio al respecto, la solución legal debe hacerse contemplando
la ley en diferentes jurisdicciones hacia el cambio de circunstancias, que comúnmente
incluye situaciones en las que la ejecución del contrato se vuelve más onerosa o imposible,
y teniendo en cuenta el entorno fáctico que determina o impacta la circunstancia cambiada.
Este documento, desde una perspectiva de derecho comparado, analiza y concluye la
doctrina del cambio de circunstancias en algunas jurisdicciones típicas que al tomar en
consideración el derecho y los hechos, proporciona algunos enfoques y posibles soluciones
legales para hacer frente a esa pérdida.
Keywords:
The eect of COVID-19 – Construction projects in the world – Changed circumstances –
Force Majeure – Hardship doctrine - Remedies in costs and time
Palabras clave:
Los efectos del COVID-19 – Proyectos de construcción en el mundo – Cambio de
circunstancias - Fuerza mayor – Doctrina del hardship – Remedios en costo y en tiempo
Summary:
1. Introduction – 2. Theory of changed circumstances – 3. The eect of the COVID-19 to
construction projects – 4. Liabilities and remedies to the loss caused by the COVID-19 – 5.
Conclusion – 6. Bibliography
* A candidate of PhD of Architect of University of Strathclyde of UK, and a senior international contract manager of China Gezhouba
Corporation Oversea Investment Company. ORCID: 0000-0003-2665-4419. Contact: sinohewei@163.com
| El COVID 19 en la Industria de la Construcción a nivel Internacional |
Revista Derecho & Sociedad, N° 55, Noviembre 2020 / ISSN 2079-3634
368
Derecho & Sociedad
Asociación Civil
55
Revista Derecho & Sociedad, N° 55, Noviembre 2020 / ISSN 2079-3634
1. Introduction
In 2020, the most overwhelming event in the world must be the pandemic of COVID-19, which militates
disastrous impact to social life of almost all countries across the world. Without exception, it also inicts an
unprecedented impact and brings about great losses to the international construction market. It is common
that in many countries activities of construction projects are, partially or completely, suspended or even
terminated, caused by the governments’ policy of curfew or developer’s nance diculty. Even though in
some countries activities of construction projects are still allowed by governments, contractors commonly
cannot sustain the scheduled progress of works due to the additional burden to defend the COVID-19,
or shortage in construction resources including labor, materials, and equipment which are necessary for
construction projects. Therefore, practitioners of construction projects have to be confronted by great
losses in both time and cost.
As the time elapsed, it seems that the impact of the pandemic gradually becomes week, while parties have
to start to be busy in allocating the liability of such loss. Supercially, it is a quite simple question since as
many practitioners suggest that it is, of course, an event of Force Majeure, therefore the corresponding
remedies, established by the law or contract, toward Force Majeure should be applied. That argument is
often made based on common sense by common practitioners and is rather questionable from an in-depth
legal perspective. This paper aims to conduct an in-depth legal analysis in this question through a close and
careful scrutiny, it starts from concluding the general theory of changed circumstances in the world, then
examines dierent extent of impact rendered by COVID-19 to construction projects in dierent countries,
and ended by a detailed discussion of the liability and remedies in projects in dierent typical jurisdictions.
2. Theory of changed circumstances
2.1. Concept of changed circumstances
It is a general principle applied in both Civil Law and Common Law systems that a private contract has the
force of law between parties of the contract, i.e. pacta sunt servanda or sanctity of law.1 However the pacta
sunt servanda is not absolute, inter alia in Civil Law system, due to a strict application of the same would
bring about an undue result and therefore renders the necessity for courts to intervene a private contract
when the contract is silent or to maintain necessary justice, reasonableness, and good faith. Therefore,
both legal theory and practice developed a compromise between such principle and the other canon rule,
i.e. the clausular rebus sic stantibus, which means that the contract contained an implied term (clausular)
that certain important circumstances must remain unchanged (sic stantes)2, and therefore the pacta sunt
servanda is limited by the clausular rebus sic stantibus in dierent jurisdictions to dierent extent, in many
jurisdictions legal provisions were introduced to regulate exoneration from the performance of a contract
where performance becomes onerous or impossible because of the changed objective circumstances,3
which, in essence, brings about the disequilibrium between parties including an increased costs to
performance or a diminution of the value of performance4.
In the modern time, dierent jurisdictions have established dierent legal mechanism to address the
changed circumstances, which include two situations, i.e., the performance becomes much more onerous
or impossible.
2.1.1. Hardship doctrine
The principle of hardship is to deal with the rst situation, however, the term of hardship is not a xed legal
concept in each jurisdiction5 but rather a collective term in English to describe the situation of fundamental
changed circumstances renders “performance of the contract obligation much more burdensome, so that
continued performance by the party impacted becomes an undue hardship”6. The concept of hardship
is collectively used is due to it was established by the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial
Contracts and therefore can reect the international character of the this legal doctrine in relation to the
1 Egidijus Baranauskas y Paulius Zapolskis, “The eect of change in circumstances on the performance of contract”, Jurisprudence 4, 118,
(2009): 198.
2 Frederick R. Fucci, Hardship and Changed circumstances as grounds for adjustment or non-performance of contracts, American Bar
Association Section of International Law Spring Meeting (April 2006), 3.
3 Baranauskas y Zapolskis, “The eect of change in circumstances…”, 198.
4 Daniel Girsberger, “Fundamental alteration of the contractual equilibrium under hardship exemption”, Jurisprudence 19, 1 (2012): 123.
5 Harold Ulman, “Enforcement of hardship clauses in the French and America legal systems”, California Western International law Journal
19, 1 (1988): 83
6 Fucci, Hardship and Changed circumstances as grounds…, 3.

Para continuar leyendo

Solicita tu prueba

VLEX utiliza cookies de inicio de sesión para aportarte una mejor experiencia de navegación. Si haces click en 'Aceptar' o continúas navegando por esta web consideramos que aceptas nuestra política de cookies. ACEPTAR