When private negotiation fails the law should allocate property rights to the party who values them most. Create laws that allocate the property right efficiently in the first place. Contrast intervention and nonintervention in the case where negotiation fails. A. Damages and Injunction 1. The payment of compensatory money damages is referred to as legal relief .
Legal relief is backward looking, i.e, is a remedy for past harms.
An injunction imposed by the court on the defendant is referred to as equitable relief . An injunction is forward looking, i.e., it prevents future harms. Both types of remedies allow for bargains to take place and, subsequently property rights to change hands. However, the specific form of the remedy has implications for the resulting distribution of income. Del Webb B. Efficient Remedies 1.