Determining proper law of contract where no express choice of law made

In a recent case ( Improvair (Cape) (Pty.) Ltd. v. Etablissements Neu , 1983(2) S.A.L.R. 138) the Cape Provincial Divisional Court considered the approach to be adopted in determining the proper law of a contract where the parties had not themselves effected a choice. The traditional solution ( Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd. v. Efroiken and Newman , 1924 A.D. 171) had been for the Court to impute an intention to the parties. However, in the light of English cases such as Bonython v. Commonwealth of Australia [1951] A.C. 201 the modern tendency was to adopt an objective approach so that the substance of the contractual obligation should be determined by “the system of law by reference to which the contract was made or that with which the transactions has its closest and most real connection”.