'Every international convention must be deemed tacitly to refer to general principles of international law for all questions which it does not itself resolve in express terms and in a different way.'

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A7F69D6EF3F577F64D512BFC870C68C4/S0020589300068457a.pdf/div-class-title-the-principle-of-systemic-integration-and-article-31-3-c-of-the-vienna-convention-div.pdf

The principle of systemic integration and article 31(3)(c) of the vienna convention

The ability of the parties to conclude binding agreements, and to determine the contents of these agreements, is at the very core of our market system. They are the consequence of our liberal understanding of personhood, placing individuality and autonomy as essential elements of our personality. Despite the importance of these concepts, however, the content of freedom of contract has experienced significant changes throughout the years, as more and more limitations are imposed upon it. This new understanding rests on the idea that not all parties are the same, and that there are certain matters that should not be modified by mere agreement. Our work focuses on the relation that freedom of contract (and its limitations) has with forum selection clauses, as well as whether they can be seen as abusive terms. In order to conduct this analysis, we use the case of maritime carriage contracts under bills of lading, reviewing the regulations that affect the trade, and whether changes need to be made to accommodate our new understanding.

/pdf/freedom-of-contract-bargaining-power-forum-selection-in-x72f0k9bib.pdf

Freedom of contract, bargaining power & forum selection in bills of lading

El presente estudio centra su atencion en la utilidad y regulacion de la figura de la ventaja injusta que deviene un instrumento eficaz para combatir contratos excesivamente desequilibrados en perjuicio de una de las partes contratantes. El legislador catalan, a raiz de la aprobacion del Libro Sexto del Codigo civil de Cataluna, ha querido dar un paso adelante en cuanto a la prevision de normativas que aspiran a lograr un Derecho contractual con un caracter marcadamente social mediante la introduccion de la ventaja injusta, pionera en el entorno del Estado espanol. La finalidad de esta figura es la de proteger la integridad del consentimiento que se presto apresuradamente y sin plena libertad de eleccion, y solucionar, a su vez, una falta de equivalencia objetiva entre las prestaciones . Para ello ha dado lugar a una institucion autonoma de proteccion de la parte debil que se situa entre la justicia sustantiva y la justicia procedimental. Asimiso, el legislador ha aprovechado la ocasion para refrendar y generalizar la institucion historica de la recision por lesion que permite recuperar el equilibrio economico al que tienden los contratos estructuralmente onerosos.

/pdf/ventaja-injusta-y-proteccion-de-la-parte-debil-del-contrato-1zg48ou6av.pdf

Ventaja injusta y protección de la parte débil del contrato

Introduction. Part 1 - Contravening the law. Part 2 - Public policy. Part 3 - Restraint of trade. Part 4 - Relief from the consequences. Part 5 - Reform. Part 6 - Cases and comments.

Illegality and Public Policy

Resolving contractual disputes

Undue Influence: ‘Impaired Consent’ or ‘Wicked Exploitation’?

Conscience and the Liberal Conception of Contract: Observing Basic Distinctions — Part II

that his subsequent difficulties in finding another job are attributable to his having worked for BCCI is however, extremely speculative. ... Four of the [unsuccessful] cases tried by Lightman J appear to have concerned employees who were dismissed by the liquidators when the bank collapsed in 1991. By contrast, Mr Naeem and the others [were] made redundant in 1990. ... The present position is that this vastly expensive litigation, which has been twice to the House of Lords and given rise to two lengthy trials ... has produced benefits for no one except the lawyers involved and has been at the expense, not of the fraudulent villains but of the public and the unfortunate creditors of BCCI.59

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/MLR388.pdf?abstractid=313698&mirid=5

Undue Influence in the House of Lords: Principles and Proof

It not frequently occurs in legal contractual settings that one contracting party is confronted with a choice between holding the other contracting party to a valid and subsisting contractual relationship inter se ('affirming' the contract), and exercising an inconsistent legal power permitting that relationship to be put to an end ('disaffirming' the contract). When that happens, the other party becomes vulnerable to having his or her existing legal position altered (indeed abolished) by the unilateral decision of the party so confronted and empowered. The existence of such vulnerability thus necessitates that a choice, one way or the other, eventually, and permanently, be made; for it is undoubtedly unfair and inconvenient that the other party should be 'faced with the dilemma of uncertainty' as to where she or he stands vis- -vis the first party, especially in commercial affairs, and that she or he should thereby be exposed to procrastination or, worse, opportunism at the hands of the party empowered to choose.5 Contract law's longstanding aversion to one-sided promises generally explains why the power-holding party should be disqualified from an ability to speculate protractedly or indefinitely on the future progress of the contract at the other party's risk or possible disadvantage.

/pdf/circumscribing-election-reflections-on-the-taxonomization-4nhkwhes0o.pdf

Rick Bigwood

Papers

Undue Influence: ‘Impaired Consent’ or ‘Wicked Exploitation’?

Conscience and the Liberal Conception of Contract: Observing Basic Distinctions — Part II

Undue Influence in the House of Lords: Principles and Proof

Undue Influence in the House of Lords: Principles and Proof

Circumscribing Election: Reflections on the Taxonomization and Mental Componentry of Affirmation of a Contract by Election