Toward a Unified Law of Damages

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe and test the hypothesis that the law of remedies rests upon certain foundational principles, and that these principles can be summarized in terms of formulas with universal application. It is suggested that this is the result of certain historical accidents, relating to the structure of the common law court systems, which led to the integration of economic principles into the fabric of the common law. As a result, the common law remedies are based on economic principles which, as descriptive of human behavior, have remained fundamentally unchanged for hundreds of years and remain universally applicable today.

Part I describes the institutional histories which led to this phenomenon. Part II summarizes the legal concepts that developed as a consequence. Part III investigates the links between these concepts and economic principles. Finally, part IV considers a formulized embodiment of the foregoing analysis. The result is a unified theory of damages. Parts V and VI then seek to test this hypothesis for the damages remedies, by reference to case law and other authorities and commentators. Parts VII and VIII examine the possibility of extending the theory to the reliance and restitution remedies, thereby describing a unified law of remedies.

Subject Area

Law

Degree Date

1981

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

LL.M.

Department

Dedman School of Law

Advisor

Roy Anderson

Second Advisor

A. J. Thomas, Jr.

Number of Pages

x, 460

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