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Conditions and warranties, which are generally referred to as policy terms in insurance contracts, are crucial in the determination of the rights and obligations of the contracting parties. The article examines the enforcement of policy terms in insurance contracts at common law and the legislative measures that have been deployed in some common law countries, including Nigeria, the United Kingdom and Australia, to ensure fairness as well as to balance the inequality in the bargaining power of the contracting parties. In as much as the principle of freedom of contract will generally be honoured by the court, the paper argues that through legislative intervention in policy terms in these countries, the principle is being discountenanced with, in appropriate cases, in order to effectuate the just and reasonable expectation of the insured. It concludes by proffering suggestions to identified lacunae in the Nigerian Insurance law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litigants are now required to consider mediation and can be penalized under the Civil Procedure Rules if they unreasonably refuse to use an ADR procedure. As litigants are expected to participate in mediation, there are mounting concerns, particularly in common law countries that mandate attendance before accessing the courts, that parties are obstructing the process by engaging in 'bad faith'. Some common law countries have used the concept of 'good faith' negotiation to design rules or codes to regulate conduct in mediation. The English and Welsh jurisdiction identifies mediation as a type of negotiation, but has no developed concept of negotiating in 'good faith'. This paper first reviews the case law on good faith negotiation in England and Wales, before considering the concept of 'good faith' in mediation and assessing whether or how the conduct of parties in mediation could be controlled. The concept of good faith in mediation may not provide the answer because of definitional difficulties and a review of Australia, Hong Kong and the USA indicates that many rules or procedural codes are confined to a 'minimum level' of participation. Furthermore, court control of conduct is limited by the rules of without prejudice in negotiation and confidentiality rules in mediation, which limits court review unless there is substantial impropriety such as blackmail or duress. This paper proposes that the issue of the conduct of parties in mediation must be given serious consideration, particularly in view of judicial pressures in some quarters for courts to be given increased powers to direct litigants to mediate. Mandating mediation may lead to more incidences of bad faith or to party involvement without serious engagement. An argument is made to draw on the already developed principles of unreasonable behaviour in litigation in order to define the expectations of reasonable conduct in mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]