Canute But on ordinary principles of law, no such fetter on freedom of trade can, in my opinion, be warranted. A man is bound not to use his property so as to infringe upon another's right. Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas. If engaged in actions which may involve danger to others, he ought, speaking generally, to take reasonable care to avoid endangering them. But there is surely no doctrine of law which compels him to use his property in a way that judges and juries may consider reasonable: See Chasemore vs. Richards. If there is no such fetter upon the use of property known to the English Law, why should there be any such a fetter upon trade?"
Lord Bowen, of course, distinguishes the Common Law rules as to monopolies and wrongful acts, and closes by saying:[1] "I myself should deem it to be a misfortune if we were to attempt to prescribe to the business world how honest and peaceable trade was to be carried on in a case where no such illegal elements as I have mentioned exist, or were to adopt some standard of judicial 'reasonableness' or of 'normal' prices or 'fair freights,' to which commercial adventurers, otherwise innocent, were bound to conform." And Lord Justice Fry adds:[2] "To draw a line between fair and unfair competition, between what is reasonable and unreasonable, passes the power of the courts." He then refers to the repeal of the same English Statutes treated by Chief Justice White in the Standard Oil Opinion, because it had been found that such restraints substituted for freedom and competition "had a tendency," as he says, "to discourage the growth and to enhance the price of the same (i.e.,
