The second edition of Remedies in Australian Private Law offers readers a clear and detailed introduction to remedies and their functions under Australian law. Clearly structured, with a strong black-letter law focus, the text provides a complete treatment of remedies in common law, equity and statute and develops a framework for understanding the principles of private law remedies and their practical application. This edition has been significantly revised and offers up-to-date coverage of case law and legislation, including the Australian Consumer Law. Building on the detailed treatment of remedies and their broad functions across a range of private law categories, the new edition also offers expanded coverage of vindicatory damages, debt, specific restitution and coercive remedies. With its systematic and accessible approach, this text enables students and practitioners to develop a coherent understanding of remedial law, and to analyse legal problems and identify appropriate remedial solutions.

This book challenges certain differences between contract, tort and equity in relation to the measure (in a broad sense) of damages. Damages are defined as the monetary award made by a court in consequence of a breach of contract, a tort or an equitable wrong. In all these causes of action, damages usually aim to put the claimant into the position the claimant would be in without the wrong. Even though the main objective of damages is thus the same for each cause of action, their measure is not. While some aspects of the measure of damages are more or less harmonised between contract, tort and equity (e.g. causation in fact and mitigation), significant differences exist in relation to (1) remoteness of damage, which is the question of whether, when and to which degree damage needs to be foreseeable to be recoverable; (2) the compensability of non-pecuniary loss such as pain and suffering, distress and loss of reputation; (3) the effect of contributory negligence, which is the victim's contribution to the occurrence of the wrong or the ensuing loss through unreasonable conduct prior to the wrong; (4) the circumstances under which victims of wrongs can claim the gain the wrongdoer has made from the wrong; and (5) the availability and scope of exemplary (or punitive) damages. For each of the five topics, this book examines the present position in contract, tort and equity and establishes the differences between the three areas. It goes on to scrutinise the arguments in defence of existing differences. The conclusion on each topic is that the present differences between contract, tort and equity cannot be justified on merits and should be removed through a harmonisation of the relevant principles.