Is Good Faith an Over-Arching General Clause in the Principles of European Contract Law?

In this article, O. Lando investigates if good faith can be considered an overarching principle in European contract law. It looks at the principle from a historical and comparative law perspective. In all continental European countries a general principle of good faith can be found. The principle is also encountered in the Principles of European Contract Law, the Unidroit Principles of Commercial Contracts and, to some extent, in the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods. However, in English law good faith is not treated as an over-arching principle, although the principle can be found incidentally in specific regulations and cases. O. Lando concludes that, in spite of logical and technical arguments to the contrary made by H. Beale, good faith is an over arching principle.