The Sanctity of Contracts in English Law - College of Social ...

CHAPTEK 1GROWTH OF SANCTITY OF CONTRACTSINTRODUCTIONWHEN we read the arguments of counsel and theopinions of judges in actions for breaches of contractduring the last three or four centuries we findfundamental changes in the views held with respectto the nature of contracts, the purpose of enforcingcontracts and the relation of breaches of contract tomorality generally. In other words, even in moderntimes, the juristic conceptions of the nature of acontract and of the place of a law of contract in thescheme of things have varied to a remarkable degree.It will be my aim in these lectures to make ageneral study of these changing conceptions: changeswhich are to be seen and felt in the field of legislationas well as in that of judge-made law. But I shalllimit my study, for the most part, to the reports ofcases during these last four hundred years and shallmake only a brief review of relevant legislation andthe works of text writers. My object is to drawattention to the different changes and to try andoutline their causes and general effects.THE MORAL BASIS OF CONTRACTIn the 1953 Hamlyn Lectures, English Laiv and theMoral Law, 1 Professor Goodhart stated that " the1 p. 10.