Good Faith and Fault in Contract Law

It has been said that the genius of the common law lies in its capacity to change and adapt to new conditions. In nineteenth-century English contract law there were significant examples of a willingness to look to other systems, whether the French Civil Code in respect of damages or Roman law in respect of the effect of mistake. Although today decisions of other common law jurisdictions are cited, there is a perception that in the last decade English contract law has been less innovative and perhaps less open to the influence of other systems. The gradual divergence of contract doctrine within the Commonwealth and United States jurisdictions has become more apparent. The essays in this volume serve as a reminder that foreign ideas and influences have a notable place in the development of English contract doctrine and indeed where European Community law is involved, as in the case of the Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts, there is no choice. The Directive reflects the predominantly civilian systems of member states and it has been said that its main effect "will be to introduce for the first time a general concept of fairness into the UK law of contract".