A Study of Disgorgement of Profit in Civil Liability in Common Law and Iranian Law

Compensation in the form of payment of a sum of money is the most important function of civil liability law, through which efforts are made to establish the lost position of the injured party at the expense of the liable person. Nevertheless, disgorgement damages has been introduced in civil liability law in the common law system in order to achieve the objective of deterrence. In this way, and contrary to the compensatory or remedial remedies, the gains received by the defendant are considered, and the measure of assessment of this remedy is the benefit he earned as a result of committing the wrongful act. This damage is based on several principles, including deterrence and to prevent unjust-enrichment. This kind of damages is applied in a wide range of areas, such as violations of human rights and confidentiality, torts such as usurpation, deception, fraud, slander, threats. In the Iranian civil liability system, there are cases that seem to be examples of disgorgement damages, but considering the fact that liability in Iranian law is basically based on the damages to the plaintiff, disgorgement damage in the strict sense is not acceptable.