La crise économique et sociale que nous connaissons actuellement met en lumière la nécessité d’une action publique volontariste et, s’agissant des collectivités territoriales qui sont les principaux acteurs de l’investissement public, l’exigence d’une politique résolument tournée vers l’investissement de long terme, comme moteur de l’économie et de la reprise. Focalisé sur la notion de PPP, d’un part dans son acceptation la plus large, l’expression « partenariat public-privé » ou encore « PPP », désigne une formule générique englobant toutes formes de coopération entre la sphère publique et privée. D’autre part, utilisée dans un sens plus strict que celui de notion générique englobant toutes formes de coopération entre le public et le privé, la notion de PPP renvoie à une technique contractuelle ayant pour objet de confier au secteur prive la conception, le financement, la construction et l’exploitation d’un bien ou d’un ouvrage d’intérêt collectif. / The economic and social crisis we are currently experiencing highlights the need for a proactive public policy and, in the case of local authorities who are the main actors of public investment, the requirement of a policy resolutely turned towards the ' long-term investment as a motor engine of the economy and the recovery. Focused on the concept of PPP, a share in its broadest sense, the term «public -private partnership» or «PPP» refers to a generic formula encompassing all forms of cooperation between public and private sphere. On the other hand , used a more stringent than generic term encompassing all forms of cooperation between the public and private sense, the term refers to a contractual PPP technique for entrust the private sector to design, finance, construct and operate of a well or a work of collective interest.

This examination of the common law obligation of good faith in the performance and enforcement of commercial contracts in Australia seeks to achieve a number of objectives. First, to chart the historical development of the implied good faith obligation. Secondly, to identify a number of issues that remain unresolved at Australian lower court level. Thirdly, to consider five doctrinal approaches that could be adopted by the High Court when ultimately confronted by the competing claims and tensions that have proven divisive in the courts below. Fourthly, to assess each approach against three identified benchmarks. The essential thesis is that good faith should be implied, as a matter of law, in commercial contracts that are relational in nature with an additional call being made for the High Court to explicitly recognise that the underlying basis of the implied good faith obligation is the reasonable expectations of the contractual parties. This approach is the one approach that satisfies all three benchmarks and provides the most satisfactory resolution of the issues that presently bedevil the commercial good faith debate in Australia.