Good faith in European contract law

Book abstract:

Private law in Western European countries is in the process of acquiring a genuinely European (as opposed to merely national) character. One of the most important issues being discussed in academic circles and by the European Parliament is whether a European civil code for private law should be developed. This book aims to take stock of the situation as it exists at the moment, assessing the amount of common ground already existing between the national legal systems and to identify the general approach and discrepancies between different nations. The authors have chosen to illustrate this study for one specific topic, namely that of good faith, within the general law of contract. Good faith has been chosen because it is, at least in some legal systems, central to the development of their law of contracts. Where it has been marginalised by other legal systems, the question is raised as to how they cope without it. This inquiry is all the more topical since all Member States of the European Union have implemented the Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts, and will thus have to come to terms with a general notion of 'good faith' in a central area of their contract law.

The book starts by surveying the use or neglect of good faith in Western European legal systems, and explaining its historical origins. The main part of the book takes thirty situations which would, in some legal systems, attract the application of good faith, analyses them according to each different legal system and assesses the practical significance of both the principle of good faith and its relationship to other contractual and non-contractual doctrines and forms of regulation in each situation. The situations analysed are wide-ranging, from perishing foodstuffs to late payment of rent, banks miscrediting customers and access to medical records. The authors conclude with a discussion of the level of harmony between countries, both in terms of outcome of the cases studied, but also in terms of the similarities or otherwise of the legal techniques and legal basis of the process employed.

This volume is the result of the first completed project of the 'Common Core of European Private Law Project', launched in 1993 at the University of Trento, the aim of which has been to unearth what is already common to the legal systems of European Union member states.