ADDRESS BY LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL KG TO THE CENTRE FOR COMMERCIAL LAW

On Tuesday, 4th March, 2008, the Centre for Commercial Law had the great honour of being addressed by the Rt Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG, the Senior Law Lord, on the important and topical subject of contractual interpretation.  The title of Lord Bingham’s address was: “A New Thing Under the Sun?  The Interpretation of Contracts and the ICS Decision”. 

The address took place in Lecture Theatre 175, in the Old College.  The Rt Hon Lord Reed, the Centre’s Chairman, chaired the event, which was attended by judges of the Court of Session (including the Lord President, the Rt Hon Lord Hamilton), Law Commissioners, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates (Mr Richard Keen QC), solicitors and advocates, academics (from Scotland and England) and students.

The main theme of Lord Bingham’s stimulating address was that the statements of principle, regarding contractual interpretation, in West Bromwich v Investors Compensation Scheme [1998] 1 WLR 896, 912-913 (the ICS case) - particularly the statement concerning “the factual matrix” - were not as “radical” as some people had thought.  In Lord Bingham’s view, the ICS case had not led to contracts being interpreted in a way “which [did] not reflect the [parties’] commercial intentions”; nor had it resulted in courts being “inundated with vast quantities of materials”.

After his address, Lord Bingham kindly took questions on contractual interpretation and matters relevant to the new Supreme Court. 

A general wine reception followed in the Raeburn Room of the Old College, in which the guests mixed and chatted very easily.  This was followed by a private dinner. 

The whole occasion was a hugely enjoyable one, characterised by an atmosphere of great warmth and conviviality, for which we must thank our guest of honour, who contributed so much to it.

Lord Bingham's address has been published in the September 2008 edition of the Edinburgh Law Review.