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Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance

Briefings

Equitable remedies for breach of contract

1 December 2016

The influence of equity in our modern legal system must not be underestimated. There has been a resurgence of equity in the last 15-20 years, beginning with the High Court's seminal decision on promissory estoppel in Walton Stores.  Despite this, equity is often overlooked as a remedy for breach of contract.

Equity remains a rule of conscious, coming to relief when unconscionability would otherwise prevail – it "mitigates the rigours of strict law" (Lord Denning in Crabb v Arun District Council [1976] Ch 179, 187 and enables "complete justice" to be achieved among the parties. Equitable remedies are broad in scope, flexible, direct in application and supplement the common law.  Unlike common law remedies, equitable remedies are not constrained by concepts such as remoteness of damage or causation, thereby enabling equity to go beyond the common law in redressing loss and damage.

Given the many advantages of equitable remedies, it is important for practitioners to have a good understanding of how the common law and equitable remedies intersect and to know when and how to deploy equitable remedies to achieve "complete justice".

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