Category Archives: Restitution

“Subjective devaluation”

November 5, 2008 – 7:19 pm

“Subjective devaluation” is the principle which applies in unjust enrichment law when you are provided with an unwanted service, and the provider then demands that you pay - you should be able to argue that you have not been unjustly enriched because you never wanted the service in the first place.
Whenever I am trying to [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law | Comments (3)

Restitution Blog Posts

August 25, 2008 – 4:35 pm

Anyone who loves restitution law will have been aware for some time of the Restitution Legal Resource page, maintained by Steve Hedley. It’s a fantastic resource for restitution scholars.
Now Steve has added a page of restitution-related blog posts. How awesome is that? I’m proud to say that a few of them have been penned by [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Academia, Blogging, Internet, Law | Comments (5)

Hand over the money, Skippy

August 16, 2008 – 10:31 am

As someone who is interested in restitution and gain-based remedies, I couldn’t help but be interested in this story about an actor trying to recover some of the profits from the makers of the TV series Skippy.
Actor Tony Bonner, the star of the show that debuted in the late 1960s and sold to more than [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Animals, Equity, Law, Media, Popular culture | Comments (8)

Private law oils the wheels of society

August 4, 2008 – 6:02 pm

Since I’ve become an academic, I’ve become aware of an insidious belief. It is this: study of private law is just not sexy. I’m thinking here of contract, tort, restitution, property law and trusts. Such subjects are compulsory in undergraduate years, which never makes them look appealing. Equitable doctrines are probably the closest private law gets [...]

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The Goals of Private Law

July 28, 2008 – 5:59 pm

Well, I’m back from my conference, and all went better than I could have hoped with my talk. Lots of questions afterwards, but that’s pleasing in itself (it means that there’s something there which makes people think).
It was interesting that my own talk fitted in with the general tenor of the conference. In essence, there is a [...]

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Poor old Keith Mason

June 25, 2008 – 12:06 pm

Another post on the restitution vs equity divide! But this time, inspired by a MSM attack by Janet Albrechtsen on Keith Mason (former president of the NSWCA). I feel sorry for Mason - kicked in the teeth by the HCA, and then by Janet. Let’s have a look first at what Keith Mason said in [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Academia, Equity, Law | Comments (0)

Nature abhors a vacuum…

June 19, 2008 – 8:38 pm

… whereas the present Australian High Court abhors restitution lawyers.
On that point, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do, and talk “shop”, which may be boring for all those not obsessed with unjust enrichment, but I have to get it off my chest. After all, I am a restitution lawyer of sorts, although [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Academia, Law | Comments (10)

Attack of the clones

August 12, 2007 – 2:19 pm

Sir Gerard Brennan (formerly Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia) has warned against allowing governments to appoint “judicial clones” who will just follow the government’s wishes. I do share Sir Gerard’s concern about the appointment of willing judges who will countenance any extension of the law. But I’m not sure how to resolve [...]

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