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28 February 2025 / Charles Wynn-Evans
Issue: 8106 / Categories: Features , Contract
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Book review: Good Faith in Contract Law

"This work more than fulfils its stated objective of seeking to be of use both to practitioners and academics alike"
  • Author: Christina Perry
  • Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • ISBN: 978-1-80392-965-1
  • RRP: £155

In contrast to various other legal systems, the contract law of England and Wales has traditionally rejected the imposition on contractual parties of a general duty of good faith, and has addressed potentially problematic conduct by the contractual parties by way of specific legal techniques such as misrepresentation, duress, and the implication of terms (whether in law or in fact). As Lord Justice Bingham put it in Interfoto Picture Library Ltd v Stiletto Visual Programmes Ltd [1987] EWCA Civ 6, the approach of English law has been to develop ‘piecemeal solutions in response to demonstrated problems of unfairness’.

The approach adopted in domestic contract law has, however, changed significantly over the past few years following the decision in Yam Seng Pte Ltd v International Trade Corporation Ltd [2013] EWHC 111 (QB), in which

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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