Lord Hoffmann for the Privy Council advised that certainty was needed in the business world, particularly in a volatile market.
But the reasons why the courts have rejected such generalisations are founded not merely upon authority (see Lord Radcliffe in Campbell Discount Co. Ltd v. Bridge [1962] A.C. 600, 626) but also upon practical considerations of business.
The existence of an undefined discretion to refuse to enforce the contract on the ground that this would be "unconscionable" is sufficient to create uncertainty.
The considerations of this nature, which led the House of Lords in The Scaptrade to reject the existence of an equitable jurisdiction to relieve against the withdrawal of a ship for late payment of hire under a charterparty, are described in a passage from the judgment of Robert Goff L.J.
...It remains for consideration on some future occasion as to whether the way to deal with the problems which have arisen in such cases is by relaxing the principle in Steedman v Drinkle supra, as the Australian courts have done, or by development of the law of restitution and estoppel.
Their Lordships think that, on the contrary, it shows the need for a firm restatement of the principle that in cases of rescission of an ordinary contract of sale of land for failure to comply with an essential condition as to time, equity will not intervene.