The Principles of Equity & Trusts

Author(s):  
Graham Virgo

The Principles of Equity & Trusts offers a new approach to this dynamic area of law. This book examines the law of Equity and Trusts in its contemporary context, offering a critical and insightful commentary on the law, its application, and development. The text communicates both Equity and trust doctrine and also theory and reflects the modern understanding of the subject, as propounded both by the judiciary and commentators in England and other Common Law jurisdictions, notably Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore. The book consists of nine parts. Part I considers the history and contemporary relevance of Equity. Part II is about the express trust. Part III considers purpose trusts. Part IV then examines implied trusts. Part V is about beneficiaries. Part VI examines trustees’ powers and duties. Part VII examines variations of trusts. Part VIII is about breach of trust and fiduciary duty and the personal and proprietary remedies available for such breach. The final part examines other equitable remedies.

Author(s):  
Graham Virgo

The Principles of Equity & Trusts offers a distinctive approach to this dynamic area of law. This book examines the law of Equity and Trusts in its contemporary context, offering a critical and insightful commentary on the law, its application, and development. The text communicates both Equity and trust doctrine and also theory and reflects the modern understanding of the subject, as propounded both by the judiciary and commentators in England and other Common Law jurisdictions, notably Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore. The book consists of nine parts. Part I considers the history and contemporary relevance of Equity. Part II is about the express trust. Part III considers purpose trusts. Part IV then examines implied trusts. Part V is about beneficiaries. Part VI examines trustees’ powers and duties. Part VII examines variations of trusts. Part VIII is about breach of trust and fiduciary duty and the personal and proprietary remedies available for such breach. The final part examines other equitable remedies.


Author(s):  
Hook Maria

This chapter examines the choice of law rules that determine the law applicable to international contracts in New Zealand, comparing them to the Hague Principles. Private international law in New Zealand is still largely a common law subject, and the choice of law rules on international commercial contracts are no exception. The general position, which has been inherited from English common law, is that parties may choose the law applicable to their contract, and that the law with the closest and most real connection applies in the absence of choice. There are currently no plans in New Zealand for legislative reform, so the task of interpreting and developing the choice of law rules continues to fall to the courts. When performing this task, New Zealand courts have traditionally turned to English case law for assistance. But they may be willing, in future, to widen their scope of inquiry, given that the English rules have long since been Europeanized. It is conceivable, in this context, that the Hague Principles may be treated as a source of persuasive authority, provided they are consistent with the general principles or policies underlying the New Zealand rules.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
JE Penner

Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter traces the historical roots of the trust. The law of trusts is the offspring of a certain English legal creature known as ‘equity’. Equity arose out of the administrative power of the medieval Chancellor, who was at the time the King’s most powerful minister. The nature of equity’s jurisdiction and its ability to provide remedies unavailable at common law, the relationship between equity and the common law and the ‘fusion’ of law and equity, and equity’s creation of the use, and then the trust, are discussed.


1931 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh W. Brown

SynopsisUnder Common Law an employer has always been liable to his workmen for his own personal negligence, but it was not until 1897 that there was enacted the first of a series of Workmen's Compensation Acts which introduced a remarkable change in the law, inasmuch as the workman was given a statutory right to compensation for accident without requiring him to prove any negligence whatever.The evolution of the law relating to Workmen's Compensation is traced through the successive Acts of Parliament, and the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act 1925, which codifies the law on the subject, are summarised so far as they relate to the liability covered by an Insurance Policy. Under the Act the employer is liable for personal injury to his workmen by accident “arising out of and in the course of” the employment or by certain scheduled industrial diseases.An Insurance Policy covers the liability at Common Law and under the Employers' Liability Act 1880 as well as under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, and in addition makes the Insurance Company responsible for the cost of defending claims. The injured workman may have to consider whether he is likely to recover a larger sum by way of damages than he would receive in compensation by arbitration proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, and he can then elect which course to take.A description is given of the Returns of Compensations made by Insurance Companies to the Home Office on behalf of the employers in certain selected industries as required by the Workmen's Compensation Act 1925.The requirements of the Assurance Companies Act 1909 relating to Employers' Liability Insurance business are stated. In the Annual Returns to the Board of Trade under this Act, an Actuarial Valuation of the Outstanding Claims that have been in existence for five years or more is called for on an annuity basis, but no regulations are laid down for estimating the Liability in respect of Outstanding Claims of shorter duration. The present method is to take each of such claims and after considering the facts—nature of injury, rate of compensation, etc.—to make the best possible estimate of the ultimate cost to the Insurance Company. Later developments of the injury, however, may cause such estimate to be wide of the amount which the Company is called upon to pay. A plea is advanced for an investigation into the liability in respect of Outstanding Claims, in the hope that it may be found possible to arrive at average factors which could be used, with a suitable grouping of the Claims, to determine the Liability under the non-fatal Outstanding Claims from the first occasion of their becoming outstanding. When there is no recognised method based on past experience of making such an estimate, judgment may be influenced by factors not solely relevant to the ascertainment of the liability.All the leading Offices transacting Employers' Liability Insurance business are members of the Accident Offices Association. This Association was formed after the passing of the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906, by which the scope of workmen's compensation was widely extended. The Association controls the rates and policy conditions of the Tariff Offices, but as the regulations are in great measure confidential, detailed information can only be given regarding what is already common knowledge.A further step was taken in Government supervision of Insurance Companies by the Agreement made in 1923 between the Home Office and the Accident Offices Association, the effect of which is to limit to 37½% the expenses and profits in respect of the combined figures of the members of the Association.The trend of probable future legislation as recommended by the Departmental Committee in the Insurance Undertakings Bill is described, and the questions of Compulsory Insurance and State Insurance are touched upon.An account is given of an Undertaking made recently by the Accident Offices Association to furnish the Government with workmen's compensation statistics in connection with a Home Office Scheme of enquiry into the Incidence and Causation of Accidents.The subject is so extensive that it has only been possible to deal with it in broad outline, but in conclusion reference is made to various aspects that could with advantage be expanded.


Rural History ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
AUDREY ECCLES

Abstract:Madness has been a social problem from time immemorial. Wealthy lunatics were made royal wards so that their estates would be looked after, and the common law very early admitted madness and idiocy as conditions justifying the exemption of the sufferer from punishments for crime. But the vast majority of lunatics have never been either criminal or wealthy, and many wandered about begging, unwelcome in any settled community. Finally, in the eighteenth century, the law made some attempt to determine a course of action which would protect the public and theoretically also the lunatic. This legislation and its application in practice to protect the public, contain the lunatic, and deal with the nuisance caused by those ‘disordered in their senses’, form the subject of this article. Much has been written about the development of psychiatry, mainly from contemporary medical texts, and about the treatment of lunatics in institutions, chiefly from nineteenth-century sources, but much remains to be discovered from archival sources about the practicalities of dealing with lunatics at parish level, particularly how they were defined as lunatics, who made such decisions, and how they were treated in homes and workhouses.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Chelsea Torrance

<p>In May 2017, there was a strange convergence inside Palmerston North’s Te Manawa museum. As visitors arrived on the first floor, they were left with two options. Turn left for the New Zealand Rugby Museum, or turn right for an exhibition on Jools and Lynda Topp. Left for masculinist rugby history. Right for radical activist lesbians. While both exhibitions have very different subject matter, themes of gender and national identity are prevalent within them both. Using this convergence as an entry point, this thesis considers the ways national identity and gender are put on display within the permanent exhibition at the New Zealand Rugby Museum and The Topp Twins exhibition.  Using data from interviews with key people involved with the two exhibitions, documentary research, and analysis of the two exhibitions, this thesis asks how New Zealand national identity and gender are narrated and displayed within The Topp Twins and the New Zealand Rugby Museum, and considers what this means for museum practice. In so doing, the thesis begins with an overview of key literature looking at nation, discourse and gender in museum and heritage scholarship. It also considers literature of New Zealand identity formation and gender. The intellectual foundation of this thesis resides in the idea that gender, nation and museums are intimately bound.  In the second part of the thesis, an investigation into the historical and contemporary context of the two exhibitions is conducted. This section provides an overview of the content and design of the exhibits. In combining both the context and content of the exhibitions, the thesis is able to consider intentions as well as the outcomes of the two. The final part of the thesis considers the ways national identity and gender have been presented within The Topp Twins exhibition and the New Zealand Rugby Museum. This chapter shows that while gender is presented in very different ways, the museums have a very similar narrative about ‘New Zealandness’.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
William Steel

In November 2013, after a series of Law Commission reports and years of academic, professional and judicial discussion, the Government introduced legislation to Parliament to replace the existing High Court commercial list with a specialist commercial panel. Whilst this panel would bring New Zealand into line with many comparable common law jurisdictions, this article argues that the case for specialisation has not been established. In particular, it notes that there is no publically available evidence to support the claim that the High Court is losing its commercial jurisdiction, or that commercial parties are choosing to resolve their disputes offshore or through alternative dispute resolution. Accordingly, this article argues that future research by the Law Commission, or other research agency, is required before specialisation can be justified. In reaching this conclusion, it also examines the issues that may arise if the Government decides to continue with its proposed reform under cl 18 of the Judicature Modernisation Bill 2013, suggesting changes along the way.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Finn

This article investigates the development of the law governing of appeals in criminal cases in New Zealand, and the substantial though neglected history of agitation for recourse for the wrongly convicted. It uses as a lens the story of John James Meikle, a farmer convicted of sheep stealing in 1887, who later successfully prosecuted the principal prosecution witness for perjury, successfully petitioned Parliament for compensation, was the subject of a Royal Commission into his conviction and, uniquely, was declared innocent by an Act of Parliament in 1908. Meikle's case was one of several highly publicised cases in the period 1880-1910 which demonstrated serious shortcomings in the law and led to parliamentary and public calls for reform. By 1910, calls for enactment of legislation on the lines of the Court of Criminal Appeal (established 1907) received wide supporting in parliament and from the judiciary. The article concludes by looking at the reasons why, despite this level of consensus, reform legislation was delayed until 1945. 


Author(s):  
Richard W. Painter

This chapter examines the fiduciary duties of lawyers, and especially how such duties shape—and are shaped by—their other professional responsibilities. It begins with a discussion of the legal basis of lawyers’ fiduciary duties as well as the circumstances that trigger a lawyer-client fiduciary relationship. It then considers the lawyers’ fiduciary duty of loyalty, focusing on the duty to avoid conflicts of interest, the duty of confidentiality owed by a lawyer to a client, the duty of candor, and the duty to communicate to the client information that the latter needs to make informed decisions about the subject matter of the representation. It also explores the lawyer’s fiduciary duty of care, including the duty to familiarize himself with the client’s affairs and to safeguard confidential information; the relationship between fiduciary duties and other duties of professional responsibility; cases where lawyers are subject to the specific duties of a common law trustee; and two types of mandatory rules to which lawyers, as professional fiduciaries, are subject and that cannot be waived with client consent: mandatory rules of professional responsibility and generally applicable laws. The chapter concludes with an analysis of remedies available when a lawyer commits a breach of fiduciary duty, along with the unique challenges faced by lawyers when they also become trustees for their clients or third persons.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 225-247
Author(s):  
Jojo YC Mo

The focus of privacy laws in Hong Kong has always been on the use and dissemination of personal or confidential information, but a person’s privacy can also be intruded by unwanted watching or listening irrespective of whether information is collected or used. Despite an attempt to introduce two privacy torts by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong in 2004, there is no timetable as to when these two statutory torts be introduced. Recognition has been afforded for intrusions upon seclusion or solitude in a number of jurisdictions including New Zealand and the Canadian province of Ontario. In England, an intrusion tort has not been separately recognized, but the decision in Gulati v MGN confirmed that damages may still be awarded for an action for misuse of private information in instances where there is no disclosure or publication of the wrongfully acquired information. This article looks at the possibility of developing a common law action of privacy in Hong Kong which affords protection regardless of whether private information is acquired or published by drawing insights to the developments in New Zealand and England.


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