The Stipulation of COVID-19 as a National Non-Natural Disaster: A Basis for Force Majeure?

In response to the widespread human casualties and material losses which are resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, President Joko Widodo officially established COVID-19 as a non-natural national disaster through the issuance of Decree No. 12 of 2020 on the Stipulation of the Non-Natural Disaster of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic as a National Disaster (“Decree 12/2020”) on 13 April 2020.[1] However, this stipulation has led to the question of whether such a status can be used as the basis upon which to declare force majeure (keadaan kahar) in order to justify defaults in relation to existing contracts.[2]