ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, as an exculpatory reason in contract law, “exploitation” is both overused and under-analysed; it is overused in part because it has been insufficiently analysed by those who have seen fit to employ it in an attempt to describe and explain the law, or to justify a particular judgment issued in the name of the concept. Barring some defence available to the “exploiter”, we believe that a party should be excused from performing contractual commitments that have resulted from the other party’s act of interpersonal exploitation. A review of leading texts indicates that the exploitation concept and indeed exculpatory reasons more widely appear to receive rather sundry treatment at the hands of those entrusted to educate the modern student of contract law. Virtually any legal, philosophical or ordinary dictionary will define “exploitation” along the lines of: “Taking unjust or unfair advantage of another for one’s own advantage or benefit.”.
