BCLI Calls for Reforms to Address Unfair Contracts
September 28, 2011
BY Alison Taylor
28 September 2011—The British Columbia Law Institute has published today its Report on Proposals for Unfair Contracts Relief. The report recommends that British Columbia enact a Contract Fairness Act to consolidate and modernize the leading concepts that contract law deploys against contractual unfairness.
“The current law on contractual unfairness is largely found in court cases and this body of precedent contains needless complexities, gaps, and uncertainties,” noted committee chair Prof. Joost Blom, QC. “The time is ripe to address these issues and make the law more certain and accessible by enacting legislation.”
The proposed Contract Fairness Act will clarify vexing ambiguities in the application of unconscionability, duress, and undue influence, create a framework for integrating those concepts, provide for a duty of good faith in the performance of contracts and supply a definition of “good faith,” and address concerns about remedies for misrepresentation.
The Report on Proposals for Unfair Contracts Relief is the culmination of a major, two-year law-reform project that has been generously funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia.
Copies of the report and two backgrounders summarizing its contents and main arguments are all available for downloading at no charge on the Unfair Contracts Relief project page.
The British Columbia Law Institute strives to be a leader in law reform by carrying out the best in scholarly law-reform research and writing and the best in outreach relating to law reform.
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Contact: Kevin Zakreski
Staff Lawyer
(604) 827-5336
