Une exception au principe pacta sunt servanda : la théorie de l’imprévision

الملخص EN

The binding force of the contract is thus based on two essential ideas.

The first is the moral idea of respect for the word given; the other idea is that the respect of the given word allows everyone to count on the future.

The contract is forecast which reassures the contractors and encourages them to engage in transactions, national or international.

That said, and although widely accepted and adopted by the doctrine at one time, the principle of the autonomy of the will is no longer applied absolutely.

However, it has not disappeared and the will of the parties remains the basis of the contract, except that it is not sovereign but controlled in order to preserve the contractual balance.

Hence the theory of the unforeseen which aims the adaptation of the contract following an imbalance between the benefits of the parts after the occurrence of unforeseeable circumstances and not imputable to the party who prevails.

An exception provided for by the Civil Code in Article 107/3 which leads us to ask ourselves the question of what constitutes the theory of the unpredictability.

Must the contract be executed by the debtor even if the circumstances have changed? What does unpredictability mean for the future of the contract?