Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Unconscionability
1. Extreme unfairness. 2. The principle that a court may refuse to enforce a contract that is unfair or oppressive because of procedural abuses during contract formation or because of overreaching contractual terms, esp. terms that are unreasonably favorable to one party while precluding meaningful choice for the other party. ( Because unconscionability depends on circumstances at the time the contract is formed, a later rise in market price is irrelevant. "Traditionally, a bargain was said to be unconscionable in an action at law if it was 'such as no man in his senses and not under delusion would make on the one hand, and as no honest and fair man would accept on the other;' damages were then limited to those to which the aggrieved party was 'equitably' entitled. Hume u. United States, 132 U.S. 406, [10 S.Ct. 134] (1889), quoting Earl of Chesterfield u. Janssen, 2 Ves. Sen. 125, 155, 28 Eng. Rep. 82, 100 (Ch. 1750). Even though a contract was fully enforceable in an action for damages, equitable remedies such as specific performance were refused where 'the sum total of its provisions drives too hard a bargain for a court of conscience to assist.' Campbell Soup Co. o. Wentz, 172 F.2d 80, 84 (3d Cir. 1948). Modern procedural reforms have blurred the distinction between remedies at law and in equity. For contracts fof the sale of goods, Uniform Commercial Code § 2-302 states the rule of this Section without distinction between law and equity. Comment 1 to that section adds, 'The principle is one of the prevention of oppression and unfair surprise ... and not of disturbance of allocation of risks because of superior bargaining power.'" Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 208 cmt. b (1981). "Nowhere among the [Uniform Commercial] Code's many definitions is there one pf unconscionability. That the term is incapable of precise definition is a source of both strength and weakness." E. Allan Farnsworth, Contracts § 4.28, at 310 (1982).
procedural unconscionability
Unconscionability resulting from improprieties in contract formation (such as oral misrepresentations or disparities in bargaining position) rather than from the terms of the contract itself. ( This type of unconscionability suggests that there was no meeting of the minds.
substantive unconscionability
Unconscionability resulting from actual contract terms that are unduly harsh, commercially unreasonable, and grossly unfair given the existing circumstances.