Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/825

789 IMPOSSIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE OF CONTRACTS 789 IMPOSSIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE OF CON- TRACTS DUE TO WAR-TIME REGULATIONS Introduction THE far-reaching control which during the period between the declaration of war and the signing of the armistice with Ger- many it was found necessary for the government to exercise over the production, consimiption, and movement of commodities brought about an unprecedented disturbance of the ordinary con- tract relations between producers and consumers of almost every conceivable article of commerce. Whether a particular com- modity was found to be necessary for war purposes or was con- sidered nonessential, the need of the government for the one and the need of preventing labor and capital from being absorbed in the production or transportation of the other led to a drastic in- terference with the contracts of private citizens relating to each. As a general rule the parties to such contracts appear to have treated losses thus caused them as part of the fortunes of war, and hence Htigation between buyer and seller growing out of this situation has up to this time, — so far at least as the reported cases show, — been of extremely rare occurrence. It seems not improbable, however, that this reluctance to litigate may be diminished now that the period of active warfare has come to an end; and, in any event, the problems presented by the war-time interference with contracts, whether or not they are to lead to litigation and hence to judicial decisions, are of a sufl&ciently novel character to be of considerable interest to the student of the law of contracts. Prior to the war, governmental interference with contracts was confined almost entirely to the enactment of laws, or of regula- tions and ordinances having the force of law, by virtue of which the making of certain subsequent contracts or the performance of certain preexisting ones became illegal. That governmental action might render performance of a contract impossible rather than