Good faith performance of contractual obligations under Russian law

Abstract

The paper examines the implementation of the good faith performance of contractual obligations under Russian law, and identifies requirements addressed to parties in this area. The relevance of the paper stems from the increasing Russian legislator’s attention to extending the application of good faith in civil circulation, including the performance of obligations. The research aim is to examine the nature of good faith performance of obligations. The research material was the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Russian jurisprudence, and domestic authors’ studies in the field of civil law. The methodological basis consisted of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, analogy) and special legal methods (comparative-legal, formal-logical, systemic, structural-functional methods, and a method of interpretation). It is justified that the principle of good faith, being a general principle of the Russian Civil Law, is implemented, in particular, in the field of performance of obligations. The implementation of this principle regulated by legal norms ensures a balance between the interests of a creditor and debtor, allows achieving the result implied and pursued by the law, and maintains the stability of civil circulation. It seems appropriate to consider good faith in doing business, cooperation between parties, and cost-effective performance as requirements contributing to the understanding and achieving goals and objectives of the principle of good faith in relation to the performance of obligations. It is important to continue working on the formation of a uniform approach to the implementation of the listed requirements in the mentioned field by improving the existing legal regulation. The effectiveness of this process will contribute to increasing the level of judicial discretion within the established limits and will allow to guide parties in patterns of conduct aimed at achieving objectives of obligations, in other words, their due performance.