reliance: a standalone construct

In contract law, the reliance interest is the value of a party's position before a promise was made (what they would have had if they had never relied), which contract damages may protect by reimbursing wasted expenditure and forgone opportunities caused by relying on the broken promise. Fuller and Perdue's two-part 1936–1937 study distinguished this reliance interest from the expectation interest (the promised benefit) and the restitution interest (gains conferred on the promisor), reframing why and how far contract damages should run. The referent is a measure of recoverable loss anchored to detrimental reliance, central both to damages doctrine and to promissory estoppel, where reliance alone can make a promise enforceable.[1][2]

Unit

The loss suffered through detrimental reliance on a promise

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Quantified as the expenditures and opportunities lost in reliance, restoring the party toward their pre-promise position