新冠肺炎疫情中政府行为对合同效力的影响及司法应对

The influence of government’s actions on the validity of contracts and the judicial response in COVID-19 epidemic

在新冠肺炎疫情防控中,政府的行政行为对部分民事合同的履行产生较大影响,可能造成合同不能履行、迟延履行或合同目的不能实现等法律后果。在法律适用上,由于不可抗力与情事变更制度存在交叉,可根据政府行为对合同履行影响程度的不同予以分别适用。人民法院在适用不可抗力解决合同纠纷时,应注意合同中不可抗力条款的内容,严格审查因果关系,对解除合同的请求应审慎裁判;在适用情事变更规定时,应全面考量情事变化的因素,重点考虑当事人的可承受能力,运用公平原则与诚实信用原则合理分配损失;在不可抗力与情事变更交叉的场合,基于更利于平衡当事人利益的考量,可优先适用情事变更规则解决争议。

In the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic,the government’s administrative actions have a greater impact on the performance of some civil contracts,w hich may result in legal consequences such as the failure to perform the contract,the delayed performance,or the failure to achieve the purpose of the contract. In the application of the law,due to the overlap betw een the force majeure and the circumstances change system,it can be applied separately according to the different degree of influence of government actions on contract performance. When applying force majeure to resolve contract disputes,the people’s court should pay attention to the content of the force majeure clause in the contract,strictly examine the causality and make a prudent judgment on the request to terminate the contract;w hen applying the rules of circumstances change,the factors of the circumstances change should be fully considered and the affordability of the parties should be mainly considered to use the principles of fairness,honesty and credit to reasonably allocate losses;w here force majeure intersects w ith change of circumstances,based on considerations that are more conducive to balancing the interests of the parties,the rules of circumstances change can be used priorly to resolve disputes.