ABSTRACT
This chapter considers applicability to contractual estoppel of common law and statutory controls over exclusion of liability by contract. It focuses on the argument, raised in the context of cases where contractual estoppel was relied on to answer actions in misrepresentation or breach of duty of care, that contractual terms which raise the estoppel should be treated in the same way as exclusion clauses. Exclusion clauses arouse the suspicion that one or both of these assumptions might not hold true, and where the courts found or felt it to be so, they sought to redress the resulting unfairness by subjecting those clauses, as a matter of construction, to a heightened standard of clarity of expression. Modern approach of the common law to exclusion clauses now rests on recognition of the parties' entitlement to allocate between them in any way they choose the risk of things going wrong in their relationship.
