header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
09 October 2015 / Chris Nillesen
Issue: 7671 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice
printer mail-detail

Better fair than right?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Contractual rights which are contrary to accepted principles of law must be expressly agreed between parties to be effective, says Chris Nillesen

Lawyers inherently try to obtain the most favourable terms for their clients when negotiating on their behalf. However can an overzealous lawyer actually damage their clients’ interest in (for example) making exercisable rights or remedies so broad or narrow that their application becomes either too general or too academic?

Recent cases MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA v Cottonex Anstalt [2015] EWHC 283 (Comm), [2015] 2 All ER (Comm) 614 (MSC) and Aston FFI (Suisse) SA v Louis Dreyfus Commodities Suisse SA [2015] EWHC 80 (Comm), [2015] 1 All ER (Comm) 985 (Aston) show that the courts in England and Wales are not afraid to use legal interpretation to ensure a contractual dispute resolution is “fair” rather than strictly interpreting freely negotiated wording between the parties.

Is this a case of judicial activism gone too far or a welcome injection of fairness to ensure contracts do not become a tool for abusing commercial

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll