Good faith

Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case with bona fides, which is still widely used and interchangeable with its generally accepted modern-day English translation of good faith.

While fides may be translated as "faith", it embraces a range of meanings within a core concept of "reliability", in the sense of a trust between two parties for the potentiality of a relationship.

For the ancient Romans, bona fides was to be assumed by both sides, with implied responsibilities and both legal and religious consequences if broken.

The phrase is sometimes used in job advertisements, and should not be confused with the bona fide occupational qualifications or the employer's good faith effort, as described below.

In law, bona fides denotes the mental and moral states of honesty and conviction regarding either the truth or the falsity of a proposition, or of a body of opinion; likewise regarding either the rectitude or the depravity of a line of conduct.

In Canada, the Supreme Court declared in Bhasin v Hrynew that good faith was a general organizing principle.