English Contract Law General Principles

Applying the Supreme Court’s judgment in Pakistan International v Times Travel,…

“Where, however, the action threatened is a lawful one, the question of whether it is illegitimate focuses on the nature and justification of the demand rather than the nature of the threat. The court will have regard to, among other things, the behaviour of the threatening party including the nature of the pressure which it applies, and the circumstances of the threatened party…. In the commercial context, it is only in extremely limited circumstances that the law will regard a threat to act lawfully as illegitimate or unconscionable. It is not ordinarily duress to threaten to do that which one has a right to do, for instance to refuse to enter into a contract or to terminate a contract lawfully. The pursuit of commercial self-interest is justified in commercial bargaining.”(366)…