ABSTRACT
One of the most common terms in the law is the word ‘damages’. In many of the instances in which the term is used, it is interchanged as a synonym for ‘loss compensation’. This is potentially very misleading. The simplest lesson from this chapter is that the word ‘damages’, unqualified, is meaningless. ‘Damages’ simply means a ‘money award’ given for a wrong.1 This definition is justified, explored and its consequences considered in this chapter.2 One significant consequence of this conclusion is that arbitrary boundaries should not be drawn between money awards for wrongs at common law and in equity. Both are ‘damages’.
