Proportionality in private contract law.

Summary Recent developments in the case law reveal an increasingly marked intervention in favor of contractual balance. Nevertheless, in the absence of a general reflection on this notion, they appear to be multiple and fragmented. Consequently, the emerging principle of proportionality appears to be an instrument capable of uniting the various solutions to the imbalance caused by a clause or to the lack of equivalence of benefits. The durability of the contractual relationship requires the restoration of balance. If positive law is not devoid of legal tools, a better understanding of the balance of the contract could come from the principle of proportionality, which is present in the solutions of foreign laws. A precise and strict conception of the measure of contractual terms should allow a controlled extension of the control of excess, while promoting an economic analysis of contract law. By revealing the disproportionality of obligations, it makes it possible to measure the contractual imbalance and in the prolongation to restore the balance of the contract by inviting a revision up to the level of the excess. This duality makes it possible to conclude that the principle is superior to other remedies, even if they are corrected.