Private Law's Remedial Structure: Claimant Standing, Defendant Liabilities, and Court Orders

Abstract

Standing is a well-recognised idea in public law. Yet, to the private lawyer working within the law of obligations, it remains a relatively neglected concept. Standing seems to have gone missing. To rehabilitate standing from relative obscurity it first needs to be distinguished from neighbouring related concepts that could occlude it from view. This article deals with one such concept. Its central claim is that standing, a power of the claimant, needs to be better differentiated from the court’s powers to issue orders. Both are significant, and neither power should be collapsed into the other. This is crucial to carving out the necessary conceptual space for a deeper understanding of standing’s place and significance within the remedial structure of private law.