Good Faith and Inequality of
Bargaining Power
‘English lawyers tend to be hostile to
broad general principles.
They are much more comfortable when
reasoning incrementally
And by analogy with the existing body of
case law.’
Whilst there is no general doctrine of good faith in
English contract law at present, nevertheless it
influences contract law, for example, as follows:
• Unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations
1999 regulation 5
• Unfair contract terms act 1977 s 11
• Economic duress
• Undue influence
Walford v Miles House of Lords 1992
When considering whether or not English
contract law should adopt a general
doctrine of good faith the starting point
has to be this case as it did not
recognise an obligation to ‘negotiate’
the contract in good faith.
• McKendrick states:
• ‘Thus the fact that there are individual
rules of English contract law that are
consistent with the requirements of the
doctrine of good faith cannot necessarily
be used to support the proposition that
English law should recognise a general
doctrine of good faith. Provided that the
individual rules work, why abandon them
in favour of a broad, general principle?’