Law of unjust enrichment: current issues

A one and half hour CPD course on Unjust Enrighment

Speakers: Professor Charles Mitchell and Professor Ben McFarlane (UCL)
Research Centre: UCL Private Law Group
Accreditation: 1.5 CPD hours

The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception supported by One Essex Court.

About this event

This three-part seminar will discuss important developments in several areas of the law of unjust enrichment.

Part 1 will consider when compound interest can be recovered via a claim for the time value of money payments, and how such claims are valued. It will revisit the House of Lords’ decision in Sempra Metals Ltd v IRC [2008] 1 AC 561 in the light of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC[2015] 3 WLR 1748, which concerned a £1.2 billion claim and is currently on its way to the Supreme Court.

Part 2 will focus on the practically important questions of when a restitutionary remedy is available against a party with whom the claimant did not deal directly, or in relation to property in which the claimant initially had no interest. On one view, recent cases in this area have significantly liberalized the previous rules, creating opportunities for potential claimants and dangers for potential defendants. This part of the seminar will consider, for example, when restitutionary claims can be made even if the traditional following and tracing rules have not been satisfied. Cases to be considered will include Relfo Ltd (in liq) v Varsani[2015] 1 BCLC 14, Investment Trust Companies (in liq) v HMRC [2015] STC 1280, Federal Republic of Brazil v Durant International Corp [2015] 3 WLR 599 and Menelaou v Bank of Cyprus UK Ltd [2016] AC 176.

Part 3 will examine the defence of illegality to claims in unjust enrichment and the Supreme Court’s forthcoming judgment in Patel v Mirza.

About the speakers

Ben McFarlane is a Professor of Law at University College London, where he teaches trusts and property law, unjust enrichment and commercial law. His writing on unjust enrichment has been referred to by courts in England and Australia and his research has considered the interaction of property law and unjust enrichment. He is a contributor to the 33rd edition of Snell’s Equity (2015) and is the author of The Law of Proprietary Estoppel (2014).

Charles Mitchell is a Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Laws, at University College London, where he teaches trusts and unjust enrichment law. He has recently published the 19th edition of Underhill and Hayton: Law Relating to Trusts and Trustees (2016), with David Hayton and Paul Matthews, and he is currently working on the forthcoming 9th edition of Goff and Jones: The Law of Unjust Enrichment (2016), with Paul Mitchell and Stephen Watterson.