Introduction

AuthorJamie Cassels
Pages1-13
1
CHA PTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
SUBJEC T
The law of remedies provides perhaps the r ichest entry point into the
study of the nature of judge-made law. The law of judicial remedies —
which includes the law of damages — r anges over the entire f‌ield of
substantive private law, including the law of contract, tort, and prop-
erty. An appreciation of the principles governing the choice of remedies
and the methods of damages quantif‌ication provides critic al insights
into specif‌ic legal rules a nd arrangements, as well as into the nature
of the common law process generally. From a pragmatic point of view,
the issue of remedies is of utmost importance in civil litigation since
a right has practical value only to the extent that it is vindicated by
an adequate remedy. From a theoretical point of view, the law of rem-
edies is also of primary signi f‌icance because the remedies t hat courts
choose to make available to vi ndicate a right reveal much about the
nature, purpose, and scope of that right. To the extent that the key
to understanding law lies in an examination of what legal off‌icials do,
rather than what they merely s ay, close scrutiny of the actual remedial
outcomes of cases teaches much about law.
Despite their obvious import ance, until recently, remedies have
been treated more as an after thought than as an independent area of
study. Once the question of liability was establi shed, it was assumed

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