The legal adaptation of Corona virus and its impact on continuous contracts

Is the emerging virus Corona considered an emergency?

If the new Corona virus is an emergency, it will allow the court to interfere in the contract to achieve a balance between the parties to the contract in the event of a fatigue to one of the contracting parties during the implementation of the contract.

Emergency conditions are defined as: ((If general and exceptional accidents occurred that could not be expected and that their occurrence resulted in the implementation of the contractual obligation, and if it did not become impossible, it became exhausting for the debtor so that it threatens him with a heavy loss, the court may, after the balance between the interest of the parties, annul the exhausted obligation to the extent It is reasonable if justice requires it, and every agreement is null and void. Article (146) Iraqi Civil Law No. 40 of 1951.

Text analysis and application on Vaius Corona:

The article was clear and explicit in its definition of emergency conditions and when applied to the Corona virus, it is an exceptional accident and not a natural or ordinary circumstance and it is not specific to a person of one of the parties to the contract but to the general community, but to the whole world, and it is also not expected for the parties to the contract and no one can expect it.

From here we see that Corona virus is one of the most important applications of emergency conditions, which is one of the exceptions to the contract rule, the law of the contractors, as Article (145) of the Iraqi Civil Code stipulates that ((whatever the place to which the contract is mentioned, the contractor is forced to fulfill his obligation)) .

Hence, we recommend that the judiciary consider the Corona virus as an emergency and to intervene to achieve a balance in contracts in the event of a fatigue to one of the parties to the contract in these difficult circumstances that the whole world is going through.