Some businesses—particularly in the global shipping industry—are hoping a provision contained in the fine print of many contracts can avert disastrous financial losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The provision is a legal term known as force majeure. Taken from French civil law, force majeure is “a contract provision that excuses a party’s performance of its obligations under a contract when certain circumstances beyond their control arise, making performance inadvisable, commercially impracticable, illegal, or impossible,” according to a recent coronavirus and force majeure story in The National Law Review.
