LEGAL RULES GOVERNING THE DURATION OF THE CONTRACT IN ITS PERIOD OF FORMATION (COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDY)
Authors: MALEK RAHIM HUMADI, HAIDER FALIH HASSAN  
Published: June 2023

The duration of the contract is a legal term first provided for in French Amendment Decree No. 131/2016, and given the increasing importance of time in contracts, we have chosen to study the legal rules governing time at the formative stage by drawing on changes in French law compared to both Iraqi and Egyptian laws.

Article 1102 of French Amendment Decree No. 131/2016 stipulates that: "Everyone is free to contract or not to contract, to choose the person with whom he contracts, and to determine the content and form of the contract within the limits established by law."

Contractual freedom does not permit a breach of the rules relating to public order), as well as article 1104, which provides for (contracts must be negotiated, concluded and executed in good faith) and combined with article 1210 of the same decree, in which the provision was opened (prohibition of life-long obligations), the legal principles controlling the contract are the principle of contractual freedom[i], which is limited by public order[ii], as well as the principle of good faith[iii] and the principle of prohibition of life-long obligations. Since the principle of contractual freedom and the principle of good faith do not attach to the duration of the contract, there was no room for their consideration in the study other than the principle of prohibition of life-long obligations.

 

[i] The principle of contractual freedom dominates the stage of contract formation, rather it is the cornerstone of the law of obligations, (Lauriane Hauchard) https://www.lepetitjuriste.fr/laffirmation-de-liberte-contractuelle the will alone has the power to create the contract and determine its effects. The tendency of the will to create a legal effect is called a legal act, which is either the union of two wills - or more - and this is the contract, or it is a single will, and this is the singular will like a binding offer and a will. Dr. Hammad Shield, the General Theory of Obligations - Part One Sources of Commitment, Dar Al-Sanhoury, Beirut, 2016, p. 32.

[ii] (The consequences of implementing the idea of ​​public order within the framework of contractual relations concluded within the scope of civil law are the invalidity of legal actions violating the rules of public order) dr. Hussein Abdullah Al-Kalabi, Public order as an obstacle to the application of foreign law, a collection of unpublished lectures delivered to master’s students for the academic year 2019-2020, College of Law, University of Baghdad, and paraphrases the idea by saying (the idea of public order is the effective tool for curbing the power of will and preserving the higher interests of society), Dr. Hussein Abdullah Al-Kalabi, The Decadal Public System, a comparative study, Dar Al-Sanhouri, Edition 1, Beirut, 2016, p.9.

[iii] Good faith is a general legal presumption, so the judiciary presupposes good faith always, although the legislator did not presuppose good faith except in certain places. Dr. Abdul Razzaq Al-Sanhoury, Al-Wasit, Volume 2, Margin pg 600.