Damages as a Remedy for Breach of Contractual Obligations in the Law of United Kingdom and Considering the Issue in the Law of Iran

Document Type : Scientific Research

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Abstract

“Specific performance”, “termination” and “damages” are three remedies for breach of contractual obligations, which are in common in all legal systems. But transposition of these remedies is different in each system. In British law there are four types of damages for breach of contractual obligations: compensatory damages, restitution damages, nominal damages, and exemplary damages. 
Compensatory damages are assessed by two measures, “expectation damages”, “and reliance damages”. Non-pecuniary losses are in category of compensatory damages, but have its own particular rules. In Iranian legal system, some of the requirements, limitations and forms of damages are briefly stated by the law. Issues such as: loss, causation, certainty, predictability and directness have been raised by the doctrine as the other requirements of right to claim for damages. Practical issues such as measures for assessing damages also do not have a significant place in the Iranian legal system. Limitations to claim for damages, including: remoteness, mitigation theory, contributory negligence and force majeure, have been exposed to discussion, and diagnostic measures and evaluation rules were developed for each of  them. In Iranian legal system, force majeure has been expressly stated in the laws and the others are discussed occasionally, mostly in doctrine.
Incomplete and dispersed statement of laws about the issue of remedies for breach of contractual obligations, which is very commonly used issue in Iranian law and necessity to achieve a comprehensive system as to this subject enjoying systematic theoretical and practical experience of British law, which can be considered as a progressive system in field of remedy of damages, are necessities to the present  research.

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