Short answers, pulled from the story.
Damages in common law are a monetary remedy awarded to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury caused by another party's breach of duty. The claimant must show that the breach caused foreseeable loss, and the loss must involve damage to property or mental or physical injury. Pure economic loss is rarely recognized.
Special damages compensate for quantifiable monetary losses such as lost earnings, property repair costs, and medical expenses. General damages compensate for non-monetary harm including pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.
The weregild was a monetary value assigned to every human being and piece of property under Saxon Salic law. If someone was injured, killed, or property was stolen, the guilty party paid the weregild as restitution to the victim's family or property owner. It represents one of the earliest codified systems of compensatory payment in Western legal history.
In the 1986 antitrust suit brought by the United States Football League, the jury awarded the USFL a verdict of US$1 against the National Football League. Under US antitrust law the figure was automatically trebled to $3, which was widely regarded as a practical victory for the NFL. It stands as one of the most cited examples of nominal damages in modern US law.
Lord Devlin's judgment in Rookes v. Barnard restricted exemplary damages in England and Wales to three categories: oppressive, arbitrary, or unconstitutional actions by servants of government; conduct calculated to make a profit for the defendant; and cases where a statute expressly authorizes such an award. The case has been criticized and has not been followed in Canada, Australia, or by the Privy Council.
The House of Lords case of Attorney-General v. Blake involved a defecting spy, George Blake, whose book profits were awarded to the British Government as restitutionary damages for breach of contract. The case established that restitutionary damages, which strip the defendant's gain rather than compensating the plaintiff's loss, can be available in contract law, though the circumstances in which they apply remain unsettled in English courts.