Implications of Good Faith in Construction Contracts
摘要
The principle of good faith is making inroads and continues to have a significant impact on various contractual arrangements. In most of the civil legal systems, good faith is present as a core principle. Nevertheless, its definition is beyond doubt scarce in the construction industry. Good faith is one of the fundamental principles that has an impact on the contractual obligations between the contracting parties. This paper creates an urge to address the implications of good faith on construction contracts in the pre-contractual stage and the post-contractual stage. Therefore, the paper’s objective is to propose and validate a legal/contractual clause that meets the civil and common law requirements that defines and emphasizes the good faith principle, which shall minimize/prevent disputes during contract negotiations, contract execution. In addition, it will assist if the project resorts to any dispute resolution mechanism. To attain these objectives, an extensive literature review and a questionnaire were conducted to investigate the understandings of experts in the industry and assess how the good faith principle is applied in construction projects with respect to the mere definition of the principle. Furthermore, case precedents were obtained to be able to analyze how courts apply the notion of good faith. The results of the questionnaire, interview, and the cases were compared to the findings of the literature review showed that the clause application is thorough and shall benefit construction contracts to accomplish its intended objective, which shall reduce the costs arising from disputes, avoid any delays in the project duration and strengthen the contractual relationships.