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  • 3 - Contractualisation and the Common Law Retreat

  • Catherine Mitchell, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    Vanishing Contract Law
    Published online:
    25 August 2022
    Print publication:
    01 September 2022, pp 53-86

  • Summary

    This chapter subjects the revival of formal and classical law values in contract law to critical examination. The emergence of a commercially oriented contract law is explored across a number of contract developments over recent years: the reassertion of party autonomy and the emphasis on contract law as default rules; the return to a formalist style of contract interpretation; the marginalisation of equity and considerations of public policy in contract; the tendency of judges to uphold contract terms whose validity was previously regarded as questionable (‘no oral modification’ and ‘no reliance’ clauses); the dilution of common law controls on contract terms (in relation to penalties, for example).The first part of the chapter examines recent contract law developments that suggest the re-emergence of formalism in law. The second part explores the common law’s retreat from a role as general regulator of contracting activity in the context of an increasingly contractualised society.