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Principles Of Breach Of Contract And Remedies
The English law of inducing breach of contract is based on a general principle, formulated by Lord Macnaghten in Quinn v. Leathem in the following terms:
It is a violation of legal right to interfere with contractual relations recognized by law if there be no sufficient justification for the interference. The tort is described variously as inducing or procuring breach of contract, actionable interference with contractual rights.It has been applied to contracts of all kinds. Since its inception it has been seen as an aspect of the more general tort of direct invasion of legal rights. In other words, it has been held wrongful intentionally and without justification to bring about the violation of a legal right, in this case, the legal right of one party vis-à-vis the other to have a contract performed. (Birks, 1992)
In English law specific performance is an equitable remedy which is left to the discretion of the courts. A court will only enter judgment for specific performance, if damages would not be an adequate remedy, and damages are adequate when the aggrieved party's interest in the contract is purely a financial one. Specific performance is most commonly ordered in relation to agreements for the sale of land.
The principle of compensation in law makes its first appearance as a substitute for personal retaliation. In primitive law something of the nature of the Anglo-Saxon gild, or the 1rotv of the Iliad, appears to be universal. It marks out with great minuteness the measure of the compensation appropriate to each particular case of personal injury. And there is a resemblance between the legal compensation, as it may be called, and the compensation which an injured person, seeking his own remedy....
