Good Faith in English Contract Law: A 'Contagious Disease of Alien Origin'

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the current position of good faith within English contract law. It contradicts the proposition that good faith is a “contagious disease of alien origin” by instead suggesting that the principles introduced by good faith and relational contract theory are simply a mutative development on classical contract theory. In so doing, the paper suggests that these principles simply seek to uphold the objectives of classical contract theory of facilitating economic exchange, albeit by different means. It rationalizes this development according to the theory of creative destruction, that in dynamic processes, objectives may only be achieved by the destruction of the old processes. The paper further considers the suppositions introduced by this paper in both a theoretical and practical context in relation to English contract law jurisprudence.