Role of Effort in Contract Performance: A Comparative Analysis

The role of a contracting party’s efforts—as in working, trying, or exerting—in the performance of a contract is an understudied and undertheorized issue in contract law. Often, parties incorporate various efforts provisions in their contracts by setting benchmark requirements. The duty of best efforts is implied in exclusive agency contracts in order to align the interests of the principal and the agent. How and when best or reasonable efforts are implied across legal systems is one focus of this Article. More broadly, do courts see the level of effort of a party as a factor in determining breach and setting damages in a broader range of contracts? In sum, the Article explores the role of efforts, or a lack thereof, made by the parties as both an express and implied duty of contract law across legal systems. A comparative analysis of Anglo-American, Chinese, Latin American, and French law is undertaken