19.With the event of World War I and the enormous devaluation of the French currency, jurists tried to obtain relief for performances that were not impossible but were much more onerous than a party could reasonably have predicted. Based on the last part of art. 1134, (contracts must be executed in good faith), and also art. 1156, (which asserts that the common intention of the parties must be sought for in agreements in preference to the literal meanings of their terms), French jurists had claimed that the Code Napoleon allowed the application of rebus sic stantibus, or theorie de l’Imprevision, as they called it.