What does using “best endeavours” or doing things “in good faith” actually mean?  During contract negotiations, absolute obligations are often watered down by a range of terms from “best endeavours” to “commercially reasonable efforts” but what effect do these words have? How strong is the obligation in each case and is the meaning clear?

The answer often depends on where you are and how the local courts have interpreted these words before.  So, should we be describing a contractual obligation in this way or is there a better way to do it? 

In this episode of our Better Contracts series, Chloe Forster, Diego Ramos and Nick Boyle look at a variety of commonly used drafting terms and how choosing particular words can affect the enforceability of the resulting contract in the UK, Spain and Australia.