Duress and the Variation of Contracts: Looking Beyond General Statements of Principle to the Results in Particular Cases

Abstract

This article adds to current understanding of the duress doctrine as it applies to contractual variations. Its significant contribution is to bridge a gap between the statements of general principle formulated by English and NZ courts to explain the doctrine's operation and the results in particular cases, which seem to turn upon the court's evaluation of the facts and offer little guidance as to the application of the general principle. The article's analysis of case law reveals an intermediary layer of legal analysis by which specific considerations in individual cases can be generalised and, in turn, provide the courts with a number of distinct, yet intertwined, inquiries when determining if a contractual variation was entered into under duress. The article both reveals these inquiries and illustrates how the courts use the results from them.