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

The Obligation of Contracts Clause 69person shall be deprived of life, liberty or propertywithout due process of law.. In the Supreme Courtopinion in the case 3 it was declared that: " TheStatute necessarily interfered with the right of contractbetween employer and employee, concerningthe number of hours in which the latter may labourin the bakery of the employer. The general rightto make a contract in relation to his business is partof the liberty of the individual protected by theFourteenth Amendment. . . . The right to purchaseor to sell labour is part of the liberty protected bythis amendment." For this reason the Statute inquestion was declared unconstitutional.The emphasis in the common law countries on thebeneficent economic effects of freedom of contractand the consequent belief in contract as an institutionmaking for general economic welfare brought in theirtrain an enhanced respect for contractual obligationsas an extension of individual liberty. This promptedover-statements of the degree of protection given tofreedom of contract in the Constitution.A distinguished American author i has recentlydeclared that " generally speaking, the protectionafforded by clause 1 does not today go much, if atall, beyond that afforded by Section 1 of the Fourteenth.Amendment." The learned author cites insupport of his opinion the words of the SupremeCourt 5 : " It is settled that neither the ' contract'a Lockner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).4 Edward S. Corwin: The Constitution and What it MeansToday, 11th ed., at pp. 82-83.s Atlantic Coast Line Co. v. Goldsboro, 252 U.S., at p. 558.