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Prof. Normann WITZLEB has published a new edited book, Contract Law in Changing Times: Asian Perspectives on Pacta Sunt Servanda (Routledge, 2023)

Prof. Normann WITZLEB has published a new edited book, Contract Law in Changing Times: Asian Perspectives on Pacta Sunt Servanda (Routledge, 2023). 

This collection of essays provides a rich and contemporary discussion of the principle of pacta sunt servanda. This principle, which requires that valid agreements are to be honoured, is a cornerstone of contract law. Focusing on contributions from Asia, this book shows that, despite its natural and universal appeal, the pacta sunt servanda principle is neither absolute nor immutable. Exceptions to the binding force of contract must be available in limited circumstances to avoid hardship and unfairness.

This book offers readers new comparative perspectives on the appropriate balance between contractual certainty and flexibility in an era of social instability. Expert authors, mostly from East and Southeast Asia, explore when their domestic legal systems allow exceptions from the binding force of contracts. Doctrines discussed include impossibility, frustration, change of circumstance, force majeure, illegality as well as rights of withdrawal. Other chapters consider the importance of the pacta principle in international law. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic feature strongly in the majority of contributions.

The book presents several papers first presented at CUHK LAW’s Obligations Lab Asia conference ‘Pacta Sunt Servanda in Changing Times’ (June 2021).

Prof. Witzleb’s conclusionary chapter, ‘Pacta sunt servanda – a maxim and its exceptions in comparative perspective’, draws out the themes of the book in more detail. A pre-publication version of this chapter is available here.

Other chapters written by CUHK LAW professors are:

  • Stephen HALL, ‘Pacta sunt servanda, the common law, and Hong Kong’.
  • Chao XI, ‘Pacta sunt servandain the age of cryptocurrency: The case of China’.

CUHK LAW alumni contributed:

  • Siyi LIN, ‘Exceptions to pacta sunt servanda in the Chinese Civil Code’.
  • Noble Po-kan LO, ‘Treaties and pacta sunt servanda: A shared concept for the PRC?’.

For details of the book, please click here.

Posted on 5 January, 2023