ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of whether a service provider's subscription to a self-regulatory or 'soft law' code can be said to give rise to a legally enforceable reasonable expectation of compliance on the part of the consumer. The question will be situated within the practical context of banking and insurance contracts and the well known self-regulatory codes that operate in those areas. The leading proponent in the judicial sphere of the idea that reasonable expectations can give rise to legally enforceable obligations is Lord Steyn. The chapter demonstrates that in a suitable case, the courts could conceivably use the Lord Steyn conception of reasonable expectations in order to hold that a failure to follow the terms of a self-regulatory code amounts to a breach of contract. The primary advantage of reasonable expectations and, depending upon one's point of view, their primary disadvantage, lies in their flexibility.
