Rescission (contract law)  In contract law, rescission is an equitable remedy which allows a contractual party to cancel the contract. Parties may rescind if they are the victims of a vitiating factor, such as misrepresentation, mistake, duress, or undue influence. Rescission is the unwinding of a transaction. This is done to bring the parties, as far as possible, back to the position in which they were before they entered into a contract (the "status quo ante"). Rescission is used throughout the law in a number of different senses. The failure to draw these crucial distinctions is productive of serious confusion. Although Judicature legislation has been enacted throughout the common law world, and jurisdictions vary in their recognition of a distinct body of law known as equity, reference to the jurisdictional origins is still important for the purposes of exposition. Rescission is an equitable remedy and is discretionary. It is used as a synonym for termination at law. A court may decline to rescind a contract if one party has affirmed the contract by his action, or a third party has acquired some rights or there has been substantial performance in implementing the contract. To improve chances of being granted rescission, parties may do well to describe those circumstances are giving rise to an entitlement to terminate, as was done in "Koompahtoo Local Aboriginal Land Council v Sanpine Pty Ltd". Furthermore, because rescission is supposed to be imposed "mutually" upon both sides to a contract, the party seeking rescission normally must offer to give back all benefits he or she has received under the contract (an "offer of tender"). The US state of Virginia uses the term "cancellation" for equitable rescission. Furthermore, a minority of common law jurisdictions, like South Africa, use the term "rescission" for what other jurisdictions call "reversing", "overturning" or "overruling" a court judgment. In this sense, the term means to be set aside or make void, on application to the court that granted the judgment or to a higher court. Applications to rescind a judgment are usually made on the basis of error or for good cause. Most common law jurisdictions avoid all this confusion by holding that one "rescinds" a contract and "cancels" a deed (i.e., of real property), and treat rescission as a contractual remedy rather than a type of procedural remedy against a court judgment. In Australia, the Court of Equity may grant partial relief under the contract if good conscience and practical justice is observed by the court.