Abstract:

When the performance of a contract is barred by a legal impediment that occurred after the conclusion of the contract, the performance of that contract becomes legally impossible. Legal impossibility is a kind of impossibility in terms of Articles 112 and 136 of the Turkish Code of Obligations. In case of legal impossibility the obligee's right to claim specific performance ceases as in any other type of impossibility. If performance is only temporarily impossible because of legal impediments, the right to claim specific performance is suspended during the temporary legal impossibility. Whether a party can claim damages due to the failure or the suspension of the performance depends on which party to the contract is liable for permanent or temporary legal impossibility. The liability is determined primarily according to contractual agreement and in case of absence of such an agreement, according to related provisions of the law.

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