Mitigation in the Law of Damages

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Andy Summers (Associate Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Law, London School of Economics & Political Science)

Mitigation in the Law of Damages

Andy Summers (Associate Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Law, London School of Economics & Political Science)

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English

Oxford University Press
21 January 2025

Common law; Damages & compensation; Commercial law; Contract law; Torts Law

The law of mitigation determines how a claimant's own response to a breach affects the damages they can recover. It responds to the basic accusation: 'although I did wrong, you made things worse'. Mitigation applies to all claims for compensation, regardless of the claimant's cause of action and irrespective of the defendant's level of fault. It is amongst the most litigated doctrines in private law and has significant implications for general theories of damages, and yet has received relatively little scholarly attention to date.

Mitigation in the Law of Damages provides the first comprehensive theoretical and doctrinal treatment of this important area of the law in any common law jurisdiction. It argues that contrary to the leading texts on damages, judges have been right all along to explain mitigation as an aspect of causation. But to see why, we must look beyond the 'but-for' concept of causation and understand the 'common-sense' causal principles used to attribute responsibility outside the law. This approach reveals a new understanding of the rules of mitigation and their relation to other doctrines.

The implications are wide-ranging. First, mitigation applies symmetrically to benefits as well as harms, and encompasses a variety of damages doctrines that have previously been regarded as distinct. Second, the new account of mitigation advances our understanding of the legal concepts of causation, choice, and loss, and calls for a re-evaluation of existing theories of damages. Third, the book revives and develops arguments from Hart and Honoré's ground-breaking work 'Causation in the Law', with implications for every area of law where causal reasoning is invoked.

Original and thought-provoking, Mitigation in the Law of Damages restates and explains the law of mitigation in a way that is accessible to both academics and practitioners.

By: Andy Summers (Associate Professor of Law Associate Professor of Law London School of Economics & Political Science)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780198825333
ISBN 10: 0198825331
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 21 January 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Andy Summers is an Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics & Political Science. Before joining LSE, he studied Law at Cambridge and Oxford, completing his doctorate on the law of mitigation at Corpus Christi College Oxford, under the supervision of James Edelman and Edwin Peel. Dr Summers has published articles in leading journals on several aspects of private law spanning contracts, torts, and trusts, with a particular focus on the law of damages. Within private law theory, his main research interests concern the legal concepts of loss and causation.