ABSTRACT
The distinction between monetary and non-monetary claims is not adequate in itself to reflect important institutional differences between remedies. And so, although most monetary claims superficially look very much alike, differences of form can have important implications for legal analysis and legal reasoning. For example, a claim for an account of profits in equity is governed by a different set of principles than a claim for compensation at common law and it is, accordingly, quite possible that account may lie in situations where an action for damages would fail.51 Even within the common law the old distinction between trespass and debt has left its imprint on the modern law of obligations: an action for a specific sum of money is to be contrasted with a claim for compensation.52
