Specific performance

Specific performance is an equitable remedy which enforces a defendant’s positive contractual obligations: that is, it orders the defendant to do what he or she promised to do. It is therefore a remedy protecting the claimant’s expectation interest, the justification for such protection resting ultimately on the morality of promise-keeping. Prohibitory injunctions also enforce contractual promises, but differ in that the promises in question are there negative. However, if what is in form a prohibitory injunction, in substance orders specific performance, or if the courts consider that in practice the injunction amounts to specific performance, it is governed by specific performance principles and is dealt with in this chapter.