Contract Interpretation and Gap Filling; Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives

What happens when contracting parties do not expressly provide for a particular
situation in their agreement? Is intervention by the courts or legislature to fill gaps in
contracts justified? How should those gaps be filled? This book is unique in the way
it combines comparative and theoretical perspectives to provide answers to these
questions.

From a comparative law perspective, relatively little attention has been given to the
different interpretative and gap filling techniques available in different legal systems.
A comparison of the approach to contract interpretation and gap filling in England,
Germany and the Netherlands is therefore provided in this book. Comparative observations
are also made in light of the CISG, PECL and the Unidroit Principles for
International Commercial Contracts.

This book also contains a theoretical component that draws insights and inspiration
from autonomy-based theories of contract, law and economics, notions of fairness
and socio-legal perspectives to establish why contracting parties leave gaps in their
contracts, whether intervention is justified and, if so, how gaps in contracts should be
filled.

The final part of this book builds on the comparative and theoretical perspectives to
develop an interpretative and gap filling strategy that combines responses from contracting
parties, the contracting community, the legislature and the courts.