Abstract

In this note, I consider the path of the Beadica case through the South African court  system. After traversing the relevant law and facts, I focus on the Constitutional  Court’s judgment in Beadica 231 CC v Trustees for the time being of the  Oregon Trust 2020 (5) SA 247 (CC). I conclude that the majority judgment  deserves praise for its pronouncements on several pertinent issues in the law of contract,  namely: the ambit of the Constitutional Court’s judgment in Botha v Rich NO  2014 (4) SA 124 (CC), the importance of the doctrine of precedent, the role of  concepts such as good faith, reasonableness, fairness and ubuntu in the public policy  enquiry, the perceived divergence in approach between the SCA and CC on this  issue, and the court’s application of the law to the facts.