A remedy is specific when the plaintiff seeks to get the court to coerce the defendant into doing (or not doing) a particular thing. The word ‘coercion’ is used advisedly. The court orders the defendant to do (or not to do) the particular thing, and if the defendant refuses to comply, the court may use measures such as imprisonment, sequestration and fines to encourage compliance with its order. The two most important examples of specific relief in Australia are the decree of specific performance and the injunction. This chapter will consider specific performance, and the next chapter will consider injunctions. Specific performance relates to ordering the defendant to comply with the terms of a contract, but injunctions may be ordered across private law and beyond. Specific performance is exclusively equitable, and generally operates in relation to a common law cause of action; namely, breach of contract.

This chapter deals with the availability of the other specific remedy: the injunction. As with specific performance, injunctions are a coercive remedy originating in equity. The court orders the defendant to do something (or to refrain from doing something) and the defendant must obey this order or be in contempt of court. Again, if the defendant does not comply, the court may use measures such as imprisonment, sequestration, and fines to encourage compliance with its order.

However, in contrast to specific performance, injunctions apply to many situations, not just contract or contract-like obligations, and they protect many private law rights, including rights in land, goods and other property, economic rights, the right to bodily integrity, the right to reputation, the right to privacy, and contractual rights. They may also be used in support of public law rights.

Specific performance typically enforces a contract but also can be invoked to enforce a ‘promise’ enforceable under principles of estoppel. Equitable remedies like specific performance are discretionary. The inadequacy of damages is a particularly significant consideration in determining if specific performance should be granted, although there is lack of complete consensus whether the inadequacy of damages is a jurisdictional hurdle or another discretionary factor.

The purpose of orders of specific performance of a contract and of injunctions is to compel the performance of legal obligations. Many, though not all, of the considerations relevant to an order granting specific performance of a contract are also germane to the award of an injunction. Matters such as inadequacy of damages, hardship and the ability of a court to supervise the execution of its own orders are relevant to both remedies (see textbook chapter 3). Underlying the principles governing these orders are policy questions relating to the nature and limits of judicial coercion to which monetary remedies, such as damages, do not usually give rise. These questions include: to what extent can private law (as opposed to the criminal law) restrict individual freedom, including a person’s freedom to select his or her employment; can a court compel parties whose commercial relationship has broken down to cooperate with each other; and what are the limits of a court’s power to prevent wrongdoing, for example where the wrong is likely to occur outside a court’s jurisdiction but will cause damage within its jurisdiction?

The title of this chapter may look like a grab bag of remedies, but this is not the case. Specific performance and injunctions are equitable remedies. The remedy of equitable damages is a creature of statute available either in lieu of or in addition to the equitable remedies of specific performance and injunction. Thus, the three remedies are closely related. They will be discussed in turn.

Chapter 5 explores the nature of international economic obligations. It suggests that remedies in international economic regimes have a restorative rather than punitive purpose. It is argued that attribution of breach may not be relevant, or that relevant, in the international economic law context. This study posits that what international courts and tribunals ask is not who is responsible for a breach but rather who is best placed to bear responsibility. In international economic law, shared responsibility typically raises the question of the proper respondent(s).

Contractual remedies protect the aggrieved party's contractual surplus, a compensatory, contextual remedy that addresses major issues of repair.

Common law remedies did not provide adequate compensation for many claimants and they sought a remedy from the King instead. The King had so many cases to hear that he asked the Lord Chancellor to assist. The Lord Chancellor was a man of the Church and so other remedies which were often fairer were granted. One remedy was specific performance which required the defendant to carry out certain duties. It can only be awarded in certain circumstances and will not be awarded when the claimant does not come to court with 'clean' hands which means the claimant must not have behaved improperly to the defendant. Contracts requiring supervision such as employment contracts will not be specifically enforced. Other types of equitable remedy include injunctions which are orders usually forbidding an act to be done which constitutes an infringement of legal rights. Sometimes an interim injunction may be awarded before the final judgment where certain conditios are satisfied.Other equitable remedies include rectification allowing the parties to rectify a contract that does not reflect the true intentions of the parties and rescission which allows a contract to be set aside.