The reform of contract law resulted in new provisions of the Civil Code governing the duration of the contract.
Without being profoundly innovative, these provisions, which enshrine different rules or notions applicable to this subject, must now lead to a meticulous approach to it, particularly as regards the use of terms intended to formalize the fate of the fixed-term contract at its end. Three concepts are defined:
- The extension of the contract, which is based on a manifestation of will by the contracting parties before its expiry.
It would have the effect of continuing the contract for a longer period than the initially planned period.
- The renewal of the contract, which would proceed either from the agreement of the parties or from the effect of the law and which would give rise to a new contract whose content would be identical to the previous one but whose duration would be indefinite.
- The tacit renewal, which would proceed from the fact that at the expiration of the term of a contract concluded for a fixed term, the co-contractors would continue to perform the obligations and which would produce the same effects as the renewal.
These notions, as well as the regimes specific to each of them, pose difficulties above all in the context of a law in transition, for two reasons.
First of all, the parties have to understand the possible consequences of their adoption in relation to the mechanisms relating to the treatment of the duration provided for in the contracts that they are accustomed to concluding.
The consequences associated with each type of mechanism to which it may be resorted are indeed not insignificant since they relate in particular to the fact that the continuation of the contractual relationship would or would not lead to the formation of a new contract, which may result significant consequences as to the fate of the accessories of the contract of which the securities form part.
In the second place, it is even a question, as of now, of apprehending the possible consequences of the immediate application of the consecrated concepts, since they would have been used in the contracts concluded before the entry into force of the new law. contracts, since they could lead to the submission to it of new contracts resulting from a tacit renewal or renewal.
This is why it is undoubtedly one of the first subjects to be tackled quickly and which requires an audit of the duration clauses of the contracts concluded or used.
