Abstract/Summary

In this chapter, I address the question of whether there are any general principles of commercial law. The subject has long been celebrated by its practitioners and adherents – from Mr Justice Buller’s fulsome tribute to Lord Mansfield in the Age of Enlightenment to the twenty-first century. Its virtues are trumpeted as being myriad, embracing certainty, predictability, flexibility, amenity to innovation and, foremost, a facilitative demeanour. The pride in English achievements often sails dangerously close to meriting the rebuke that the English, like the Romans, were ‘much too convinced of the superiority of their legal and political system to pay much attention to foreign laws’. The domestic rhetoric often involves hostility to notions such as good faith. So, Lord Falconer boasted: ‘English commercial law provides predictability of outcome, legal certainty, and fairness. It is clear and built upon well-founded principles, such as the ability to require exact performance...