A Study on Expectation Damages for Breach of Contract in Common Law and Iranian Law

Breach of contract, by way of non-performance, delay in performance, delivery of defective goods and so on, is a common phenomenon and various legal systems have developed several remedies to deal with it. In common law systems, the first and foremost remedy is damages or money awards and, order for specific performance of contract is an ancillary and exceptional remedy. The most common damages in these systems consists of expectation damages which aims at placing the injured party in the position he would have been in, had the contract been duly performed. In other words, by giving a sum of money, the law tries to meet the expectations of the injured party as much as possible. After explanation of such aspects of the expectation damages as concept, bases, elements, criterion and methods of compensation, this Article endeavors to give a brief account of this damages in Islamic jurisprudence as well as Iranian law.