In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God, act of nature, or damnum fatale ("loss arising from inevitable accident") is an event caused by no direct human action (e.g. severe or extreme weather and other natural disasters) for which individual persons are not responsible and cannot be held legally liable for loss of life, injury, or property damage. 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.
