Law Commons^™

The Law Of Guarantees: Balancing The Interests Of The Parties, John Phillips, Michelle Chen

2013 Jones Day Professorship of Commercial Law Lecture

The guarantor has often been viewed as being in a vulnerable position, deserving of the law's protection. Certainly there need to be legal mechanisms to protect the guarantor’s interests. But this presentation also argues that some aspects of the law of guarantees, as well as some relevant contractual principles, operate unfairly against the interests of lenders and others who seek to enforce a contract of guarantee. An analysis will be made of some of the defences that may be raised by guarantors, for example, as a result of circumstances surrounding the execution of the guarantee, or upon a restructuring arrangement. …