Dr Jessica Viven-Wilksch, ‘Good faith in Australian contract law: Is a Federal Court’s understanding the next best thing to a settled position?’

One can scarcely mention ‘good faith’ to legal professionals and not get a visceral reaction, may it be of total rejection, broad agreement or somewhere in between.

Good faith first truly appeared in Australian contract law in 1992 before the New South Wales Court of Appeal. 10 years later, the High Court of Australia had the opportunity to discuss good faith but didn’t… Since then, some judges have lamented the lack of argumentation of good faith at the highest level, while lower courts have been trying to articulate the concept in contract law.

Since there is no High Court’s final word on good faith in contract law, what is the position of Australian common law on good faith? That is the, not so small, question that Jessica addresses during this presentation. Jessica will retrace the chronology of events that led to where we are today. Notably, Jessica will look at the Federal Court of Australia’s understanding of good faith in contract law in the decision of Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and its influence on later cases over the last 10 years. Throughout the presentation, Jessica will try to decipher the contours of the Australian articulation of good faith and identify its sticking points in the broader context of the Australian contract law, ultimately proposing reflections on legal certainty in contractual dealings.

Speaker profile: Dr Jessica Viven-Wilksch, Senior Lecturer, Adelaide University

Image credit: Magnific

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