According to an often quoted saying a gentleman’s agreement is an agreement which is not enforceable at law and binding only as a matter of honour. Honour, so the saying suggests, does not belong to the province of civil law. However, on second thoughts this suggestion may appear to be not very accurate. This is so, in the first place, since the anthropology of law reveals that for instance in mediaeval Europe between the ninth and the thirteenth century honour in connection with the ownership and defence of land was considered as property in the agro-pastoral society. In the second place, honour plays a prominent role as a legally protected interest in defamation and libel, and slander cases. Although in such cases compensation for personal injury is usually placed at the forefront, the proprietarian element (e.g. the loss of good name may lead to a loss of goodwill in business) is quite often also at stake. The same is true for those legal regimes such as the Dutch one, that protect the moral rights of authors under copyright law. Modern Dutch practice shows that gentleman’s agreements are commonly used as substitutes for contracts to structure long term continuing commercial relations. Although the parties completely agree on all the terms of a contract, they also agree that this does not lead to legal consequences but is binding in honour only. Indeed these gentleman’s agreements reflect the parties intention not to be bound in law as an expression of the autonomous ordering process which is quintessential for contract law. Businessmen often find that contracting is not needed because of relational sanctions. A party that is acting infra honore will be sanctioned socially in its field of trade; it will be stigmatized and set aside. The notion honour should not be taken to literally in this respect though. It refers to the customs and practice common to a particular trade. So what may be called dishonorable in one trade may not necessarily also be dishonorable in other business relations. Moreover under the ...