In this week’s NLJ, Gustavo Moser, independent arbitrator and consultant, and arbitration specialist lawyer at Lexis+® UK Arbitration, takes us through the key elements of a watertight force majeure clause in international contracts.
There must be ‘disciplined drafting, factual clarity and a careful appreciation of the governing legal framework’. Moser highlights the importance of the scope of definition, for example, he writes that ‘disputes seldom turn on abstract characterisations like “war” or “crisis”; they hinge on whether a concrete development falls within the contractual language when read in context’.
As Moser highlights, force majeure clauses are ‘no longer peripheral safeguards’ but form ‘a core element of modern contractual risk architecture’.
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