New Clauses for Business:
ICC Force Majeure and Hardship Clauses 2003
8 April 2003

Introduction

Venue
ICC International Headquarters, Paris - France

Businesses need their contracts to succeed. Events, however, frequently frustrate the best business intentions and a party may find itself in the position of having to default because of events beyond its reasonable control. Alternatively, while a company might still conceivably be able to perform its contract, performance might now cause it exceptional hardship because of events similarly beyond its reasonable control.

Most participants in international trade and their legal advisers can easily conjure up in the abstract examples of so-called “force majeure” or “hardship” circumstances – wars, strikes, terrorist attacks etc. However, when it comes to a particular dispute between particular parties, businesses reach for their contracts, for the precise wording of their force majeure clauses, clauses in which they will have tried some time earlier – with greater or lesser clarity – to predict and respond to “unforeseen” events.

Objective
In the ICC Force Majeure Clause 2003 and in the ICC Hardship Clause 2003, the ICC seeks to provide international traders with ready-made, off the peg, model clauses which parties to international contracts may incorporate into their contracts. The Clauses were adopted by the ICC in January 2003 and this Conference marks their official launch.
This event will provide opportunities both
n to understand the structure and purpose of the new Clauses and
n to examine their practical effect through case studies drawn from different legal jurisdictions.

Panel of Speakers
Chaired by Professor Charles Debattista, Draftsman in Chief of the new Clauses, the panel of speakers assembled for this Conference combines many years of experience, both practical and academic, in international trade disputes.

Participants
The Conference will be of particular interest to

• traders in goods and services across national boundaries
• in-house legal advisers to international traders
• legal practitioners advising international trading companies