Good Faith and Relational Contracting - Do Enterprise Contracts Offer a Way Through the Woods?

Professor David Mosey and Shy Jackson

March 2020

A paper presented to the Society of Construction Law at a meeting in London on 4th February 2020

The paper addresses the remaining uncertainty as to whether good faith can be implied into a contract and, in respect of express or implied good faith, how to interpret and apply such a duty. The authors analyse the leading good faith cases where they provide background and context to the recent trend for the courts to look at relational contracting. The paper draws on research led by the King's College London Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution in examining the extent to which construction contracts can be relational contracts, how the evolution of contract theory affects collaborative contracting and whether a new type of contract known as an enterprise contract can shed new light on the debate.

Introduction - Background to good faith - Good faith in construction - Relational contracts in context - The courts' views on relational contracts - Enterprise planning and enterprise contracts - Enterprise features of collaborative construction contracts - Conclusions

The authors:
Professor David Mosey is the Director of the King's College, London Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution.
Shy Jackson is a partner at Pinsent Masons.

Text: 19 pages