The principle of good faith as a means of the development of law

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The subject of this research is the principle of good faith in the Russian civil law, in versatility of its doctrinal understanding and complexity of substantive definition. The author describes the key approaches adopted in the Russian science, outlines certain flaws common to interpretation of this principle. It is noted that the usual interpretation of the principle of good faith, as a certain behavioral standard of the party to a contract, has no applicative avenue due to its natural meaninglessness and practical futility. Civil transaction requires predictability, certainty and stability, which is excluded without a uniform interpretation of the principle of good faith. Another subject of this research is the additional responsibilities that are directly related to the principle of good faith. The author indicated the problems of linear use of the formulas cited in law, since it also creates the grounds for legal uncertainty. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Recognition of the special role of judicial system in revision, adaptation and development of the written law. This function of judiciary is implemented in the process of ordinary law enforcement under the auspices of referring to such general clauses as the principle of good faith. 2) Revision, development, or supplement of the law may cannot be done ad hoc. The court cannot introduce legal uncertainty into law enforcement. This requires special instruments in form of the strictly verifiable values, which would be the bases of law as a whole and civil law in particular. Such values are reflected in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and legal provisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Thus, the constitutionalization of private law is a natural process of translating socially significant values into the civil law by means of the principle of good faith.