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Natural Obligations And The Common Law Of Unjust Enrichment, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Two leading restitution scholars have recently argued that the notion of natural obligations is now an important defence in the law of unjust enrichment. 'In particular, the late Professor Peter Birks asserts, in his last book, that 'the claimant cannot say that the money was not due if, behind the technicalities of the law, there was still a moral obligation to pay.' This development is interesting because the concept of natural obligations is traditionally thought to be a civilian and not a common law concept. Birks' assertion represents an attempt to use the study of comparative law to interpret the …