Is Fair Dealing a Workable Concept for European Contract Law?

Abstract

In this paper I will try to determine whether good faith and fair dealing make a couple or whether fair dealing has its own existence and, if not, to which concepts it can be linked. I will also try to determine whether fair dealing can be or become one of the common principles of European contract law. In order to decide whether fair dealing is a workable concept for European contract law, it is first necessary to determine whether it is a workable concept for English law. I will first try to determine whether fair dealing is a concept at all and whether it is necessary. Then I will demonstrate to what extent a general concept of fair dealing would constitute a legal irritant to the legal structure of English law and still to what extent fair dealing’s substance might fit the evolutionary spirit of English law. As a result, I will be able to determine to what extent fair dealing is a workable concept for future European contract law.