Force Majeure Clause Enforceability by Jurisdiction

A well-drafted force majeure clause is generally enforceable in India and courts will apply it as written. Where a contract has no force majeure clause at all, the narrower doctrine of frustration under Section 56 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 may apply instead, but only where performance has become genuinely impossible, not merely more difficult or expensive.

There is no general doctrine of force majeure in English common law — it exists only if the contract expressly includes it. Without a force majeure clause, a party's only fallback is the narrower common law doctrine of frustration, which applies rarely and only where performance has become genuinely impossible or radically different from what was agreed.

As a common law jurisdiction, Singapore takes the same approach as the UK: force majeure exists only where the contract expressly provides for it, and is construed narrowly and strictly against the party invoking it. Without a clause, only the narrow common law doctrine of frustration is available as a fallback.

Onshore UAE civil law recognises a codified force majeure doctrine that can excuse performance even without an express contractual clause, where an unforeseeable event makes performance genuinely impossible. The DIFC and ADGM free zones instead follow the English common-law approach, where force majeure exists only if the contract expressly provides for it.

US common law has no general doctrine of force majeure — it applies only where the contract expressly includes it, and courts construe such clauses narrowly. For contracts involving the sale of goods, the Uniform Commercial Code provides a separate, narrower excuse for impracticability of performance, but this is not a substitute for a well-drafted contractual clause.

Many EU civil-law jurisdictions recognise force majeure as a codified doctrine in their civil codes, providing a statutory fallback even without an express contractual clause — a meaningful difference from the common-law approach in the UK or US. The specific threshold and effect still depend on which member state's law actually governs the contract.