First Principles of Business Law

5. Injunctions

5.1. How injunctions work

An injunction is an order that a court makes to forbid or stop particular conduct.

Injunctions can be made in a wide variety of circumstances (not limited to breach of contract) when a person's legal rights are at risk. The idea behind issuing an injunction is to preserve the legal situation as it is, and prevent a likely (or further) infringement of legal rights.  It can be a useful remedy when a breach of contract seems likely to occur, or is actually occurring.

Injunctions normally only give temporary relief, and additional litigation may be needed to fully resolve the case. But often the party against whom the injunction is made avoids further litigation by doing what is required of them before further litigation takes place.

In this section of the module, we look at examples that illustrate when an injunction might be an available remedy in circumstances of breach of contract .