In common law legal systems, the term of art 'vindicatory damages' is a taxonomic label to describe a certain type of damages awarded by courts to individuals who have suffered a legal wrong.
[Note 1][1] For some jurisdictions, a 'vindicatory approach' has informed awards of damages in response to breaches of constitutional rights.
[1] In other jurisdictions, such as Australia and the United Kingdom; apex courts have denied the applicability of vindicatory principles in the award of damages.
[1][2][3] Jason Varuhas, a scholar of the common law has argued that vindicatory damages are a part of a long-standing tradition in common law legal systems; and criticized recent decisions by courts decline damage awards in some contexts as a 'deviation from orthodoxy'.
[4] In his book Damages and Human Rights, he has pointed to the struggles faced by court systems when attempting to rationalize damages awarded for breaches of bills of rights, and argues for courts to adopt a vindicatory approach modeled on the rules and principles applied in tort cases where basic rights are violated.