Contract Damages: Domestic and International Perspectives

(Hardback)

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This book is a collection of essays examining the remedy of contract damages in the common law and under the international contract law instruments such as the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. The essays, written by leading experts in the area, raise important and topical issues relating to the law of contract damages from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The book aims to inform readers of current developments, problems, trends and debates surrounding contract damages and reflects an ongoing dialogue on damages among representatives of common law, civil law, mixed and trans-national legal systems. The general issues addressed in the collection include the purpose and scope of damages, the measures of damages, recoverability of losses, methods of limiting damages and the assessment of damages. A special emphasis is placed on the examination of the role of gain-based damages, the meaning and definition of loss, the recoverability of damages for injury to business reputation, the recoverability of legal fees, the rules of mitigation and foreseeability, the dilemma between the 'abstract' and 'concrete' approaches to the calculation of damagesand the relationship between changes in monetary value and the assessment of damages.

Reviews

This collection of essays is one result of a conference in June 2007 in Birmingham University's attractive Business School, part of which I had the pleasure of chairing. Their focus is on a traditionally somewhat neglected field, but one of domestic and international significance to which increasing attention has rightly been addressed in recent years.The essays take damages in the widest (perhaps even controversial) sense of the word, with a number of papers tackling the border territory where 'restitutionary damages' may represent an alternative to reliance and expectation measures. This is territory where, since the House of Lords' decision in Attorney General v Blake in 2000, no practitioner can afford to be lost. But the maps are still being written, with academic assistance playing an invaluable role. The courts will for some time be engaged in implementing Lord Steyn's injunction in Blake to hammer out 'on the anvil of concrete cases' exceptions to the general principle that there is no remedy for disgorgement of profits in cases of breach of contract. The whole collection includes essays by a range of distinguished experts which address not only the philosophical underpinning of the law of damages, but also more specifically topics such as the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods and UNIDROIT principles. Together, these essays represent a valuable, informative and stimulating body of material, for both study and reference. The organisers, Ralph Cunnington and Djakhongir Saidov, are to be congratulated for arranging the conference and marshalling, as a result, a most interesting set of contributions to learning in this important field. Lord Mance 31/10/07 The work is an informative source of information for current developments, problems, trends and debates surrounding contract damages. Anthony Lo Surdo Australian Banking and Finance Law Bulletin Vol 24, No 4 ...there is simply not space to do justice to the volume's many noteworthy contributions... David Winterton Law Quarterly Review Vol 125, April 2009 ...this is certainly a collection of essays worth having in one's library. Tham Chee Ho Singapore Journal of Legal Studies December 2008 The publisher, Hart Publishing, should be complimented for this excellent product...This book goes a considerable way towards opening our eyes to the complexities of the damages question in modern contract law. This is a book for academics and practitioners alike. For those involved in the field it is an important summation of the state of play. Donald Robertson Journal of Contract Law ...a rich, diverse and stimulating body of works that provokes the reader to rethink and rediscover the law of contract damages...The book's meticulous and critical treatment of the law as it stands in different legal systems and under different international instruments will give the reader not only a firm grasp of the current problems, but also a sure foundation for dealing with novel ones as they arise. Pey-Woan Lee Journal of Business Law Volume 5, 2009 ... a highly improving read which should leave even the most demanding remedies buff satisfied. Andrew Tettenborn Bracton Professor of Law, University of Exeter Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly

Author Bio

Djakhongir Saidov is a lecturer in law at the University of Birmingham. Ralph Cunnington is a lecturer in law at the University of Birmingham.