The Principle of Good Faith in the Civil Law and Common Law Systems: The Albanian Legal System, Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The principle of good faith in civil law is very important in the regulation of negotiating agreements, so that the contracting parties must carefully evaluate the conduct to be maintained before, during, and after the formation of the agreement as well as in the interpretative phase of the negotiating will. Objective good faith, understood as a rule of conduct, is in fact invoked in numerous provisions of the civil code in Italy. As in most civil law legal systems, including France, Germany, Spain, and many others, it is essential for the parties to maintain behavior based on good faith in contractual relationships. Traditionally, in countries governed by the common law, it is difficult to find a general principle of objective good faith, unless the contracting parties decide to expressly introduce it in the negotiating regulation and autonomously regulate its scope. Although in the English legal system the law expressly imposes the respect of good faith in particular contractual contexts, it cannot be argued that good faith is a generally recognized principle in the UK legal system. This paper will present, through a comparative analysis, the principle of good faith in the civil law and common law systems, as well as analyze this principle in the Albanian legal system.

Received: 8 May 2022 / Accepted: 16 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023