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But the law of the land is not there to frustrate your [[reasonable]] commercial intentions. A court will only do that if your intentions were base (as, to be sure, many a merchant’s will be if the opportunity arises to tilt the tables in his favour - Adam Smith had some choice things to say about that). If you exploit a counterparty’s vulnerability or patent misapprehension, expect to find the awesome creative weight of the common law – [[estoppel]], [[constructive trust]]; [[money had and received]], ''[[assumpsit]]'' – incanted against you. | But the law of the land is not there to frustrate your [[reasonable]] commercial intentions. A court will only do that if your intentions were base (as, to be sure, many a merchant’s will be if the opportunity arises to tilt the tables in his favour - Adam Smith had some choice things to say about that). If you exploit a counterparty’s vulnerability or patent misapprehension, expect to find the awesome creative weight of the common law – [[estoppel]], [[constructive trust]]; [[money had and received]], ''[[assumpsit]]'' – incanted against you. | ||
If that’s your caper, don’t expect words on paper, however exquisitely turned, to help you. | |||
But as long as it ''isn’t'' – as long as you act in [[good faith]] and a [[commercially reasonable manner]], loving your [[neighbor]] as you love yourself; doing unto others only what you would have them do to you – you have little to fear from a literal construction. | |||
There is a (home-made, admittedly) {{tag|Latin}} maxim – ''[[anus matronae parvae malas leges faciunt]]'' (“little old ladies make bad law”) which, even though I made it up, may be the final, deepest foundation of the law of [[equity]]. It has a converse expression, also home made and converted into {{tag|Latin}} to make it sound plausible: [[non mentula esse]]: don’t be a dick. Be clear about what you want, and be a good egg, and you have little to fear from her majesty’s judiciary. [[Bonum ovum esse]], you know? | There is a (home-made, admittedly) {{tag|Latin}} maxim – ''[[anus matronae parvae malas leges faciunt]]'' (“little old ladies make bad law”) which, even though I made it up, may be the final, deepest foundation of the law of [[equity]]. It has a converse expression, also home made and converted into {{tag|Latin}} to make it sound plausible: [[non mentula esse]]: don’t be a dick. Be clear about what you want, and be a good egg, and you have little to fear from her majesty’s judiciary. [[Bonum ovum esse]], you know? | ||