현대 계약법상 신의칙의 법규범성과 그 적용의 확장에 관한 고찰

The classical theory of the law of contract has been developed under the principle of liberty of contract on the basis of free will of the parties involved in the contract. But, growth of industry and monetary in contemporary society give rise to centralization of capital to specific minor social classes. As a result, discrepancy in social and economical power among individuals have grown wider and wider. Specifically, behemoths and expert groups have occupied a prominent position at the expense of powerless consumers in the real contract world. The Inferior positions of parties in the contract bring about a serious imbalance with regard to the freedom of conclusion of a contract and decision contents of a contract. With these injustices in mind, the purpose of this study is to make a justification of contract contents by setting consistent limitations on the principle of free will in the contract. Because legal regulations tend to be mostly vague and abstract, however, contract disputes that occur in legal practice cannot be fully settled under the conventional contract laws. In this regard, the main theme of this study is to establish legal theories that can close the gap between positive law and the idealism of serving justice. Essential to this legal objective is the legal principle of good faith. This principle, however, tends to be extremely abstract and overgeneralize because of which this principle has been criticized for undermining legal stability. In spite of this, the principle of good faith should be applied to correct or repair imbalances if contract contents or legal regulations do not correspond to specific social justices. The principle of good faith imposes specific obligations upon the parties in contract relations. This principle levies certain collateral obligations on even the parties who are arranging to conclude contracts. As a basis for discussion and theorization in this study Professor Macneil's Relational Contract Theory is referred to and quoted.