Difficulties with Damages as a Ground for Specific Performance

Abstract:     
This article discusses the granting of specific performance and the rule that specific performance will not be awarded where damages are an adequate remedy. It argues that where damages are difficult to calculate this may make damages an inadequate remedy, depending on whether the difficulty is intrinsic to the contract and its circumstances and the circumstances of breach, or extrinsic, where the difficulty is essentially evidential. The article concludes that damages may be found to be inadequate where the quantification difficulty is intrinsic, but not where it is merely extrinsic.

Keywords: Contracts, contract law, remedies, equitable remedies, specific performance, damages, inadequacy of damages

JEL Classification: K12

Accepted Paper Series