Coronavirus Pandemic 2019-nCoV (COVID-19) as Force Majeure

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the legal analysis of the consequences of a new coronavirus infection, due to which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. By its nature, this infectious phenomenon refers to a force majeure event. Within the framework of the scientific research, the author describes the concept of force majeure, as well as the features of emergency and unavoidability that make up this legal category. In addition, a number of regulatory legal acts regulating public relations in this area are subject to legal analysis, both adopted earlier and published literally from the very beginning of the spread of coronavirus infection throughout the territory of the Russian Federation. Along with the analysis of the regulatory legal acts, the paper also provides judicial practice on the issue under consideration. Based on the legal analysis of the issues under study, it is concluded that adequate legal regulation of the consequences of the coronavirus infection within the framework of relations between civil law subjects will guarantee the participants mutual bona fide behavior in accordance with the norms established by civil law, and in the case of unfair behavior — the implementation of civil liability measures for such subjects. In conclusion, it is noted that prompt and qualitative regulation of the consequences of the coronavirus infection is one of the key tasks in the legal field in the current situation, since contract law, which includes provisions on force majeure, plays an important role in the development and maintenance of stability of civil turnover, providing all its participants with legal guarantees for the implementation of the basic norms and rules established in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation concerning the conclusion and execution of contracts.