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In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. 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''. It is an important concept within law and
business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...
. The opposed concepts are
bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception which ...
, ''mala fides'' (duplicity) and
perfidy In the context of war, perfidy is a form of deception in which one side promises to act in good faith (such as by raising a flag of truce) with the intention of breaking that promise once the unsuspecting enemy is exposed (such as by coming out ...
(pretense). In contemporary English, the usage of ''bona fides'' is synonymous with credentials and
identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...
. 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.


''Bona fides''

''Bona fides'' is a Latin phrase meaning "good faith". Its
ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
is ''bona fide'', meaning "in good faith", which is often used as an adjective to mean "genuine". While today ''fides'' is
concomitant Concomitance is the condition of accompanying or coexisting. A concomitant is something that accompanies something else. Concomitant or concomitance may refer to: * Concomitance (doctrine), a Christian doctrine * Concomitant (classical algebraic ...
to faith, a more technical translation of the Latin concept would be something like "reliability", in the sense of a trust between two parties for the potentiality of a relationship. In
ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
''bona fides'' was always assumed by both sides, and it had implied responsibilities and both legal and religious consequences if broken.
Fides Fides or FIDES may refer to: *Faith, trust, loyalty, or fidelity, or a religious belief * Fides (cycling team), an Italian professional cycling team in 1961 *Fides (deity), goddess of trust in Roman mythology * Fides (reliability), guide allowing ...
was one of the original virtues to be considered a religious "divinity" in
Roman paganism Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...
. Modern interpretation is that it is a return of favor for the completion of a favor.


Law

In law, ''bona fides'' denotes the mental and
moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...
states of honesty and conviction regarding either the
truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as belief ...
or the
falsity Deception or falsehood is an act or statement that misleads, hides the truth, or promotes a belief, concept, or idea that is not true. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda and sleight ...
of a
proposition In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...
, or of a body of
opinion An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with ...
; likewise regarding either the rectitude or the depravity of a line of conduct. As a legal concept ''bona fides'' is especially important in matters of
equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership *Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...
. The concept of ''bona fide'' is also proclaimed by the original version of ''
Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by t ...
''. In contract law, the implied covenant of good faith is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with each other honestly and fairly, so as not to destroy the right of the other party or parties to receive the benefits of the contract. In insurance law, the insurer's breach of the implied covenant may give rise to a legal liability known as insurance bad faith. Most US jurisdictions view breaches of implied covenants of good faith and fair dealing solely as a variant of breach of
contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...
. Linguistically, in the US, American English usage of ''bona fides'' applies it as synonymous with credentials, professional background, and documents attesting a person's
identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...
, which is not synonymous with ''bona fide'' occupational qualifications. More recently, other common law countries have begun to adopt good faith as a general principle. In the UK, the High Court in '' Yam Seng Pte Ltd v International Trade Corp Ltd'' expressed this preference. In Canada, the Supreme Court declared in '' Bhasin v. Hrynew'' that good faith was a general organizing principle.


Employment efforts

''Bona fide'' occupational qualifications (employer's good faith effort) are qualities or attributes that employers are allowed to consider when making decisions on the hiring and retaining of employees. An employer's good faith effort is used as an evaluation tool by the jurisdiction during the annual program review process to determine an employer's level of commitment to the reduction goals of the Washington State's Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) Law. United States federal and
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...
s are required by affirmative action (and other such laws) to look for disabled, minority, female, and veteran business enterprises when bidding public jobs. Good faith effort law varies from state to state and even within states depending on the awarding department of the government. Most good faith effort requires advertising in state certified publications, usually a trade and a focus publication. Other countries such as Canada have similar programs.


In wikis

Public
wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...
s depend on implicitly or explicitly assuming that its users are acting in good faith.
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
's principle ''Assume Good Faith'' (often abbreviated AGF) has been a stated guideline since 2005. It has been described as "the first principle in the Wikipedia etiquette". According to one study of users' motives for contributing to Wikipedia, "while participants have both individualistic and collaborative motives, collaborative ( altruistic) motives dominate."Wagner, C., Prasarnphanich, P. (2007) "Innovating collaborative content creation: the role of altruism and wiki technology", ''Proceedings of 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences'', 3–6 January 2007, Hawaii


See also

*
Bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception which ...
*
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951, is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, and sets out the rights of individua ...
* Hanlon's razor *
Honour system An honor system or honesty system is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. Something that operates under the rule of the "honor system" is usually something that does not have strictly enfo ...
*
Kindness Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, rendering assistant or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward in return. Kindness is a topic of interest in philosophy, religion, and psychology. Kin ...
*
List of Latin phrases __NOTOC__ This is a list of Wikipedia articles of Latin phrases and their translation into English. ''To view all phrases on a single, lengthy document, see: List of Latin phrases (full)'' The list also is divided alphabetically into twenty pag ...
* Make one's bones * ''
Pacta sunt servanda ''Pacta sunt servanda'', Latin for "agreements must be kept", is a brocard and a fundamental principle of law. According to Hans Wehberg, a professor of international law, "few rules for the ordering of Society have such a deep moral and religi ...
'' * ''
Uberrima fides ''Uberrima fides'' (sometimes seen in its genitive form ''uberrimae fidei'') is a Latin phrase meaning "utmost good faith" (literally, "most abundant faith"). It is the name of a legal doctrine which governs insurance contracts. This means that ...
'' (utmost good faith)


References


External links


"Good Faith Effort with California Department of Transportation"
{{authority control Legal doctrines and principles Contract law Equitable defenses Intention Latin philosophical phrases