ABSTRACT
The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) Secretariat published a detailed note to explain how the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC) provisions on force majeure and hardship would apply in the context of the pandemic to offer guidance on how the unprecedented impact of a global health crisis on commercial contracts could be dealt with. The purpose of adding a free-standing general duty to act in good faith and fair dealing is to provide a catch-all duty which applies to those circumstances for which no specific provision exists elsewhere in the UPICC. The main criterion is that the interpretation of a contract should be done on the basis of the common intention of the parties. To that extent, the interpretation is subjective, but only if it is possible to attribute clearly the same intention to all of the parties in respect of the contract provision at issue.
