Adjustment of contract terms by Brazilian courts under the Emergency and Temporary Legal Framework for relationships involving Private Law during the period of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic (RJET). (Brazilian Federal Act 14,010 of June 10, 2020)

Abstract

The present paper analyses the adjustment of contracts by courts under the framework established on Brazilian Federal Act 14,010/2020. From a long time, the development of Brazilian Private Law has been able to conciliate the opposite ideas of a general prohibition for courts to adjust contracts and the adjustment based on subjective and flexible criteria, with a mix of subjective criteria (such as in the French doctrine of hardship) and objective criteria (such as in the Italian doctrine of eccessiva onerosità). Even though the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic caused the emergence of a new chapter in the history of Brazilian Contract Law, the legal framework which existed before the pandemic was not changed, in order to ensure legal certainty, fairness and the criteria for adjustment of contracts which had already been established by precedents of Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (Superior Tribunal de Justiça), the higher court for non-constitutional matters.