Nature and significance of pandemic in Russian civil law

Tense epidemiological situation around the world in connection with the spread of a new coronavirus infection could not but affect modern legal relations. Due to the lightning spread of the new coronavirus infection, the stable lasting legal relations of civil turnover have been subjected to imbalance. In business there are more frequent cases of non-performance, impossibility of fulfilment of contractual obligations, release from liability for non-performance of obligations with reference to the circumstances of the pandemic independent of them. There is no unambiguous understanding by theorists and law enforcers of the nature of the new coronavirus infection, which has reached the scale of a pandemic. The terms "force majeure", "force majeure", "impossibility to fulfil an obligation" have been used in relation to the pandemic. The dualistic approach of the explanations of the highest judicial bodies and the lack of unity in the understanding of pandemic in science predetermined the subject of this study. The purpose of this article is to analyse the existing regulatory framework, international acts, judicial practice, to theoretically substantiate the non-identity of such legal categories as "force majeure" and "force majeure", to develop a differentiated approach to the circumstances exempting from liability (force majeure or force maj eure), and to determine the place of COVID-19 coronavirus infection among such circumstances. As a methodological basis of the study applied universal principles of scientific cognition (comprehensiveness, systematicity, objectivity, methodological pluralism), general philosophical method (dialectical), general scientific methods of cognition (comparison, ascent from the abstract to the particular), general logical methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, generalisation, classification, abstraction), special-legal methods (formal-legal, method of interpretation of legal norms, dogmatic). Conclusions. The analysis of scientific views, legislation and practice of its application on force majeure and force majeure allowed to come to the conclusion that they are not identical. The authors believe that the pandemic of coronavirus infection COVID-19 is a force maj eure circumstance and entails, as a general rule, not exemption from liability, but the application of various restrictive measures. If there are: a) signs of force majeure, b) causal link between the pandemic and impossibility or delay in fulfilment of obligations, c) good faith of the debtor, this circumstance exempts from civil liability. In order to avoid doubts in the correct interpretation of the circumstances of exemption from liability, the contract may provide for: 1) the procedure of actions of the parties in case of force majeure; 2) special rules on termination of obligations in case of force majeure. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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