Act of God

In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God or damnum fatale ("loss arising from inevitable accident") is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, which frees someone from the liability of what happens as a result. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in contracts (as under the Hague–Visby Rules), or it may be an "insured peril" in an insurance policy. In Scots law, the equivalent term is damnum fatale, while most Common law proper legal systems use the term act of God.

It is legally distinct from—though often related to—a common clause found in contract law known as force majeure.