Tiempos de cambio: De nuevo un cambio de circunstancias en la ley portuguesa de derecho privado, derecho europeo y sus instrumentos europeos e internacionales para la armonización del derecho privado

Abstract

Due to the recent economic and financial crisis, courts have once more questioned the relevance of change of circumstances as a motive to renegotiate or to terminate the contract. The tension between the principle pacta sunt servanda and clausula rebus sic stantibus has long been a distinguished mark of most European countries national laws and has recently been taken into account by International and European legal instruments and also by ec soft law. In this paper we want to point out some of the requirements these legal texts demand in order for a court to vary or terminate a contract because of a change of circumstances. We take into account Portuguese law and some of its nearest neighbouring countries laws, and take a short excursion into history to provide a brief overview of the development of the change of circumstances doctrine through the years.