The Legal Concept of the Obligation to Renegotiate (Doctrine of Changed Circumstances)

An Analytical Study

Abstract

The obligation to renegotiate is one of the relatively recent obligations that emerged from the mentality of the French legislator in accordance with the bold amendments introduced in its civil law for the year 2016, so that it became possible to amend the terms of the contract - as an exception to the principle of binding force of the contract - when exceptional emergency circumstances arise after the completion of the contract and during its implementation phase that lead to a serious and gross imbalance in the financial balance of the contract. Which urgently requires both parties to sit at the negotiating table to renegotiate in line with the new emerging circumstances. Given the importance of the renegotiation commitment and the fact that it has become a basic condition in most contracts, especially international trade contracts that are lax in implementation or ongoing. Therefore, in this study, we dealt with explaining the legal concept of this obligation, defining its nature, its legal conditions, and its effects on the concluded contract by adopting a scientific, descriptive and analytical approach to fulfill this very important topic in terms of analysis and rooting in order to reach the desired legal results, and we recommended many scientific recommendations that we considered important for the continuity of the contract and for the benefit of both parties.