Negotiation damages: compensation for direct loss

Thesis

The existing accounts of negotiation damages suffer from several difficulties. This thesis offers an analysis of these damages based on a notion of ‘loss’ that is intended to be broad and factual at the same time.

One suffers a loss by being deprived of a benefit to which one is entitled. A benefit is a thing (anything) that is reasonably valued. Compensatory damages are justified when the claimant suffers loss of a benefit that it is the purpose of his or her right to ensure.

This compensatory principle, described in this thesis as the ‘loss of benefit’ theory, explains a vast area of the law of civil remedies, including the most significant aspects of contract remedies: specific performance, an order to pay the agreed sum (and its limit when the claimant does not have a legitimate interest in keeping the contract in force and claiming the agreed sum), the basic measure of recovery, and damages for consequential losses.

Negotiation damages, including damages on a Wrotham Park basis and user damages, provide compensation for the claimant’s loss of a direct benefit. Negotiation damages are always justified where the claimant has suffered a loss according to the said definition, since it is always the purpose of one’s right to ensure a direct benefit to which one is legally entitled.

Authors: Ataie, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-azy445pz8
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford