COVID-19 (Coronavirus), which was detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has spread to many countries, including our country, and reached the world in a short time. In addition to posing a significant threat to human health, this negative situation experienced globally has also brought with it a number of social, economic, commercial and legal problems.
Our country has taken precautions/ restrictions, considering the economic and commercial issues closely connected with the question of one of the important issues on the agenda of the coronavirus as cases of force majeure and are not treated as depending on this assessment, the impact on contractual execution of actions is related to how it would be.
That definition is not explicitly included in the legislation, but the concept of force majeure and the doctrine shaped by the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, to be taken into consideration when the contract was made beforehand and as a result that would be impossible to prevent, as due to external factors and events
it can be identified. In this context, it can be mentioned that there are a number of main elements of force majeure;
these are (i) the fact that the force majeure was not caused by a defect caused by the party suggesting the force majeure and occurred outside its control, (ii) the state of force majeure is unpredictable, and (iii) it is impossible to resist the state of force majeure despite taking all Measures. In addition, whether the Supreme Court’s alleged case of force majeure has an effect throughout the country is similar
it is seen that he also evaluates criteria such as the impact on legal relations and whether the parties are merchants.
It is necessary to specify concretely, in the decision No. 2017/1190 and 2018/1259 issued by the General Assembly of the Supreme Court of Law on 27.06.2018, the force majeure is; “… an absolute and absolute violation of a general norm of behavior or a debt that occurs outside the activities and operation of the responsible or debtor
it is an extraordinary event that inevitably leads to which it is impossible to foresee and resist.”it has been stated that events such as earthquakes, floods, fires, epidemics will be considered force majeure.
It should be noted right away that any concrete incident is a dispute caused by the coronavirus in particular
as far as is known, it has not yet been moved to a judicial path, and therefore a decision has not been reached on the characterization of the effects of the coronavirus as a force majeure. However, the Supreme Court accepted definitions of the concrete above statements and teachings in light of the coronavirus spread rapidly throughout the world and severe/ extensive disease began to take measures, given that they seem to be able to evaluate the scope of an epidemic as a force majeure.
