CPL Seminar: 'Secret Breach of Contract'

The Cambridge Private Law Centre will host a series of ‘current developments’ and ‘research in progress’ seminars this term both in-person and over Zoom.

Speaker: Paul MacMahon (LSE)

Damages for breach of contract generally seek only to compensate the victim for breach. Profit-stripping awards are potentially available where compensation would be inadequate, but such awards are extremely rare. And in English law, at least, punitive or exemplary damages are simply unavailable in contract cases. This paper makes a case for supra-compensatory remedies in a limited class of contract cases. It starts from the premise that breaching a contract is not so bad—so long as the breaching party pays compensation. Damages exceeding compensation should be available where the breaching party has attempted to avoid paying compensation by concealing its breach. A successful secret breacher will get away without paying damages at all, so additional deterrence is required to guard against such breaches when they are discovered. The argument supports punitive damages rather than disgorgement for concealed breaches.

This event will take place in B16 in the Faculty of Law, or you can attend via Zoom.

If you have questions or are interested in speaking at a future CPLC event, please email privatelaw@law.cam.ac.uk