ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine some recent interesting developments in maritime cases, which have seen parties seeking, and being granted, specific remedies to enforce both positive and negative contractual promises. Specific performance is also an equitable, discretionary remedy and, like a mandatory injunction, may only be granted if damages are not an adequate remedy. Latterly, the test has variously been put as “whether it is just, in all the circumstances, that the claimant should be confined to his remedy in damages” or whether “the innocent party should have a legitimate interest extending beyond pecuniary compensation for the breach”. Interim mandatory injunctions coupled with claims for specific performance are increasingly being used to enforce the terms of letters of indemnity that are provided when the vessel is ordered to deliver the cargo without production of the original bills of lading.
