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Force Majeure in Indonesian Civil Law

Dhea Salsabila

Contributor

10 Feb 2024 · 09:45 10 February 2024 09:45 WIB 5 minutes reading time: 5 minutes 15 read

This article discusses force majeure in depth, starting from the definition, legal basis, types, to its implementation in law in Indonesia.

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Table of Contents

Definition Force Majeure
Legal basis Force Majeure
Article 1244 of the Civil Code
Article 1245 of the Civil Code
Types Force Majeure
Permanent
Temporary
Function Force Majeure in Indonesian Contract Law
Reference

Legal Literacy - Force majeure or force majeure is a term that is often encountered in the economic sector, especially in matters relating to agreements or contracts. This concept is applied when a debtor is in a dire situation or is experiencing an event that occurs beyond their control. This article discusses force majeure in depth, starting from the definition, legal basis, types, to its implementation in law in Indonesia.

Definition Force Majeure

Referring to Black’s Law Dictionary, force majeure etymologically comes from French which means superior force or higher power. As for the terminology, the term is defined as an event that cannot be anticipated or controlled, including natural events and events caused by humans.

Meanwhile, according to the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI), force majeure or force majeure is defined as an event that rationally cannot be anticipated or controlled by humans.

There are also several definitions force majeure according to experts, namely:

Abdulkadir Muhammad

Force majeure is a condition where the debtor cannot fulfill their obligations because an unexpected event occurs which the debtor could not have predicted would occur when making the agreement.

Setiawan

Force majeure is a condition that occurs after an agreement is made which prevents the debtor from fulfilling their obligations, for which the debtor cannot be blamed and does not have to bear the risk and could not have predicted when the agreement was made. This is because everything happened before the debtor was negligent in fulfilling their obligations when the situation arose.

From the various definitions above, it can be concluded that force majeure is a force majeure situation (overmacht) due to an event that occurs beyond control, causing the debtor to be unable to fulfill their obligations to the creditor.

The event can be said to be force majeure if it meets several elements, including:

Events that occur due to natural events or phenomena.
Events that cannot be predicted to occur.
Events that demonstrate an inability to fulfill obligations under a contract, either in whole or for a certain period of time.

In this case, force majeure is one of the concepts included in the category of civil lawIn the system civil law, civil law has two parts, namely contract law and commercial law. More specifically, the position of force majeure is in the contract law section.