2002 Brazilian Civil Code: New Principles for the Contract Law

Abstract

The 2002 Brazilian Civil Code constitutes the most growing encoding of private law in Latin America, being the social nature its principal and distinctive characteristic, in contrast with the individual sense reported in the Code of 1916. This has resulted in the fact that, concerning contracts and obligations, the so called social principles prevail: social function of the contract, objective good faith, and contractual balance. This article is intended to analyze such principals and then expose the way they are reflected on the main cases of judicial revision of the contract