ABSTRACT
Louisiana has codified in its Civil Code one of the most absolute versions of pacta sunt servanda found in comparative law. It leaves so little room for exonerating or excusing obligors from the impediments and hardships caused by force majeure events that, in the author’s view, Louisiana contract law may be ranked, in terms of rigorousness, above English law, American law, and the recently reformed French law. In different degrees, these countries provide the obligor with wider, more flexible, and even multiple defenses in the face of force majeure, but Louisiana permits but one defense: the stringent defense of ‘true’ impossibility, which, as the jurisprudence demonstrates, is rarely satisfied. It will be argued that the situation is ironic if not paradoxical, for Louisiana might be regarded as one of the world’s capitals or epicenters of force majeure, as shown by its recurrent subjection to hurricanes, epidemics, floods, and other disasters that repeatedly interfere with the ability of obligors and debtors to perform their contractual promises. This article deals with the paradox of upholding the (near-absolute) sanctity of contracts in a jurisdiction that is a veritable incubator of force majeure events.
Vernon V Palmer, The Sanctity of Promises in a Capital of Force Majeure: Hurricanes, Pandemics, and the Doctrine of Impossibility under Louisiana Law, (2023) 10:1 Journal of International and Comparative Law 45-61; Tulane Public Law Research Paper No 23-10. Posted: 14 November 2023.
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