The contract is the law of the parties. Thus, validly concluded, the contract has the force of law for the parties and therefore, in principle, cannot be terminated by the will of a certain party. The termination of the contract by unilateral termination is, however, one of the ways to terminate it, provided by the Civil Code. The paper proposes a brief analysis to answer the question: is the unilateral termination of a contract the rule or is it the exception? The scientific approach is carried out on two levels: in the common law contract (art. 1166 et seq. Of the Civil Code) and in the consumer contract. The result of the study is different: in the common law contract the unilateral denunciation operates as an exception and in the consumer contract, as a rule (unlimited). The paper is structured in four sections: “Termination of the contract: the last stage of its development", “Unilateral termination in common law: exception to the principle of binding force of the contract", “Unilateral termination: unlimited in the consumer contract" and “The right of unilateral termination in various consumer contracts ".