Hardship and Renegotiation of Contracts in the Prospective Recodification of Italian Civil Law

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR VERGLEICHENDE RECHTSWISSENSCHAFT, 2020
Abstract

The proposed reform of the Italian Civil Code includes, inter alia, amendments to the rules of hardship (eccessiva onerosit). Art. 1467, as it stands, provides that, in case of hardship, the burdened contracting party may request termination of the contract, while the other party may avoid it through an offer of modification. On the other hand, the reform proposes a solution based on the duty to renegotiate the contract and the recognition of a pronounced judicial power to adapt the contract. The authors discuss in detail the salient aspects of this reform proposal, starting from the reasons for its necessity and facing a comparative analysis with other legal systems (French and German).