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Force Majeure and Hardship: A Commercial Approach to Contract Adaptability
April 08, 2026
Managing uncertainty, risk, and behaviour through force majeure and hardship
Force majeure and hardship clauses are often approached as defensive legal protections. In practice, they are critical tools for managing uncertainty, allocating risk, and preserving commercial relationships in volatile operating environments.
This workshop examines when adaptability through force majeure and hardship provisions is commercially justified, and how far that adaptability should extend. Participants will explore how uncertainty, volatility, dependency, and power dynamics influence the need for adaptive mechanisms, and whether flexibility should be structured as a unilateral or bilateral right.
The session also focuses on negotiation strategy, integrating commercial objectives, internal stakeholder interests, risk appetite, and governance constraints into a coherent approach to drafting and negotiating adaptive terms. Finally, the workshop looks beyond contract signature to consider how force majeure and hardship mechanisms influence counterparty behaviour over time, shaping incentives, conduct, and relationship dynamics across the contract lifecycle.
In this session, we’ll:
- Judge when adaptability through force majeure and hardship is commercially justified
- Determine whether adaptability should be unilateral or bilateral
- Develop a coherent negotiation strategy for adaptive terms
- Position force majeure and hardship provisions to influence behaviour over time
Designed for WorldCC’s commercial and contract management audience, this workshop provides a practical framework for using force majeure and hardship clauses to balance resilience, flexibility, and commercial control.
All upcoming sessions:
08 April 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (GMT) | 15 April 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (GMT) |
Pricing adjustment and indexation 29 April 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (GMT) | Data sharing, transparency and audit 22 April 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (BST) |
14 May 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (BST) | Intellectual property, adaptive rights design 20 May 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (BST) |
Suspension, step in, and continuity 3 June 2026 | 2 pm – 4 pm (BST) |
Event Times
- 6:00 AM – Seattle / Vancouver
- 7:00 AM – Denver / Edmonton
- 8:00 AM – Chicago / Winnipeg / Mexico City
- 9:00 AM – New York / Ottawa
- 2:00 PM – London / Lisbon
- 3:00 PM – Paris
- 4:00 PM – Helsinki / Amman
- 5:00 PM – Moscow / Doha
- 6:00 PM – Dubai
- 7:30 PM – Mumbai / New Delhi
Agenda
Speakers
| Name | Organization |
|---|---|
| Tim Cummins | World Commerce & Contracting |
| Sally Guyer | World Commerce & Contracting |