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Full-Text Articles in Law

Characterisation And Choice Of Law For Knowing Receipt, Adeline Chong Jan 2023

Characterisation And Choice Of Law For Knowing Receipt, Adeline Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Knowing receipt requires the satisfaction of disparate elements under English domestic law. Its characterisation under domestic law is also unsettled. These in turn affect the issues of characterisation and choice of law at the private international law level as knowing receipt sits at the intersection of the laws of equity, restitution, wrongs and property. This paper argues that under the common law, knowing receipt ought to be considered as sui generis for choice of law purposes and governed by the law of closest connection to the claim. Where the Rome II Regulation applies, knowing receipt fits better within the tort …


Restitution, Man Yip Jun 2019

Restitution, Man Yip

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The year 2018 produced only a handful of cases on the law of unjust enrichment and restitution. However, two are seminal cases and of note to the entire common law world: Ochroid Trading Ltd v Chua Siok Lui1 (“Ochroid”) and Turf Club Auto Emporium Pte Ltd v Yeo Boong Hua2 (“Turf Club”). Ochroid dealt with the hotly debated topic of the illegality defence against a claim in unjust enrichment for the recovery of money paid pursuant to an illegal contract. Rejecting the newly formulated Patel v Mirza3 approach under English law, the Court of Appeal in Ochroid set Singapore law …


Unjust Enrichment: Revolution And Evolution In The Asia-Pacific, Tiong Min Yeo Apr 2018

Unjust Enrichment: Revolution And Evolution In The Asia-Pacific, Tiong Min Yeo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article contrasts two approaches to the development of the law of unjust enrichment in Malaysia and Singapore, as evidenced by recent case law. While the Malaysian Federal Court has taken the bold step of steering Malaysian common law into the somewhat uncharted territory of "absence of basis" as a general justification for claims to reverse unjust enrichment, the Singapore Court of Appeal has been more cautious in taking incremental steps to build on the "unjust factor" approach.


User Damages And The Limits Of Compensatory Reasoning, Alvin W. L. See Jan 2018

User Damages And The Limits Of Compensatory Reasoning, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The use of the term “user damages” in reference to compensatory damages is particularly problematic because it tends to overgeneralise the cases and conceal the importance of identifying the relevant loss in each case, which has implications on issues of proof, quantification and mitigation. This has contributed to the persistent neglect to squarely address issues of loss, which has in turn led to both over- and underestimation of the limits of compensatory damages. Once we look past the broad label, it becomes obvious that the cases purportedly unified by a common measure of loss tend to vary widely in facts …


Restitution [2016], Man Yip Jul 2017

Restitution [2016], Man Yip

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.


Unauthorised Fiduciary Gains And The Constructive Trust, Alvin W. L. See Dec 2016

Unauthorised Fiduciary Gains And The Constructive Trust, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article challenges the traditional assumption that all cases of unauthorised fiduciary gain warrant the same legal treatment, in particular the imposition of a constructive trust as a disgorgement remedy. It proposes a method of categorising the cases and ranking them based on the strength of the principal’s interest. It is suggested that in cases where the principal’s interest is not particularly strong, there is room for taking into account the interests of innocent third parties and affording them the necessary protection. For this purpose, the remedial constructive trust supplies the needed flexibility.


Restitution Of Non-Gratuitously Conferred Benefit In Malaysia: A Case For Sowing The Unjust Enrichment Seed, Alvin W. L. See Jul 2016

Restitution Of Non-Gratuitously Conferred Benefit In Malaysia: A Case For Sowing The Unjust Enrichment Seed, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article draws on the common law of unjust enrichment to rationalize and develop the right to recover a non-gratuitously conferred benefit set out in section 71 of Malaysia’s Contracts Act 1950. This attempt at legal transplant and modern restatement is made in the hope of injecting principle and clarity into the antique section with the eventual goal of reviving it for practical and modern use.


Restitution For The Mistaken Improver Of Land, Alvin W. L. See Feb 2016

Restitution For The Mistaken Improver Of Land, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The recent Malaysian case of Dream Property Sdn Bhd v Atlas Housing Sdn Bhd marks a rare occasion where an improver of another’s land is allowed to claim from the latter for the improvement. In a landmark judgment, the Federal Court of Malaysia recognised the right of recovery as based on the law of unjust enrichment, but curiously departed from certain well-established principles under common law which are less generous to the improver. The significance of this decision clearly lies in its contribution to the continuing endeavour to achieve an appropriate balance between the interests of the landowner and the …


Restitution [2014], Man Yip Jul 2015

Restitution [2014], Man Yip

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.


Restitution [2014], Man Yip Jun 2015

Restitution [2014], Man Yip

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.


An Introduction To The Law Of Unjust Enrichment, Alvin W. L. See Jan 2013

An Introduction To The Law Of Unjust Enrichment, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The principle that no one shall be unjustly enriched at the expense of another has been invoked to rationalise the right to restitution in a number of cases which fall outside the provinces of contract and tort. This has eventually led to the recognition of an independent legal discipline known as the law of unjust enrichment. It is among the most debated private law subjects today despite its remarkably recent origin. In Malaysia, despite the increase in judicial reference to the language of unjust enrichment to justify an award of restitutionary relief, there is generally a lack of understanding about …


Liability For Work Done Where Contract Is Denied: Contractual And Restitutionary Approaches, Man Yip, Yihan Goh May 2012

Liability For Work Done Where Contract Is Denied: Contractual And Restitutionary Approaches, Man Yip, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper explores the divide between the law of contract and the law of restitution in dealing with the different situations that arise from one party commencing work prior to the conclusion of a formal contract. It argues that contract and unjust enrichment each have a proper role to play in dealing with such cases. First, it argues against a purely contractarian view that such cases should be exclusively resolved by the law of contract, through an implied collateral contract. Such a technique, applied vigorously, would result in nullifying the concept of “essential terms” and an artificial construction of parties …


Choice Of Law For Unjust Enrichment/Restitution And The Rome Ii Regulation, Adeline Chong Jan 2008

Choice Of Law For Unjust Enrichment/Restitution And The Rome Ii Regulation, Adeline Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

After being considered as niche territory for a long period, conflicts of law and restitution has provided a fertile ground for exposition in recent times. Whilst some development on the jurisdictional front has occurred, choice of law has lagged behind somewhat as, in England at least, no one seemed to be quite sure what was or should be the choice of law rule for restitutionary claims. However, the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (commonly known as the Rome II Regulation) has now entered into force and will apply from …


Measuring The Unjust Enrichment In A Restitution, Howard Hunter Mar 1989

Measuring The Unjust Enrichment In A Restitution, Howard Hunter

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Unjust enrichment is a theme common to most restitution cases in the United States. The theory of recovery is based on a justice principle the disgorgement of an unfairly obtained gain. The goal, in general, is to require the defendant to give up his gain rather than to compensate the plaintiff for a loss, as in a tort case, or to substitute damages for an unfulfilled expectancy, as in a contract case. This paper examines some of the issues that surround the measurement of the unjust enrichment and the defendant's liability. There are a number of straightforward rules for the …


Quantum Meruit And Building Contracts: Part I The Quantum Meruit Concept, Howard Hunter, J. W. Carter Jan 1989

Quantum Meruit And Building Contracts: Part I The Quantum Meruit Concept, Howard Hunter, J. W. Carter

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The aim of this article is to discuss the restitutionary principles applicable to quantum meruit claims in building contracts. In the first part we consider the concept itself and identify the contexts in which such a claim is pursued. In the second part of the article, to be published in the next issue of the JCL, attention is directed, principally, to one issue, namely whether the contract price constitutes a ceiling on the amount recoverable under a quantum meruit claim following breach by the defendant.


Quantum Meruit And Building Contracts: Part Ii Does The Contract Price Put A Ceiling On A Recovery Via A Quantum Meruit?, Howard Hunter, J. W. Carter Jan 1989

Quantum Meruit And Building Contracts: Part Ii Does The Contract Price Put A Ceiling On A Recovery Via A Quantum Meruit?, Howard Hunter, J. W. Carter

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The question posed by the title of this part of the article has been the subject of a substantial amount of commentary by American legal scholars and has been a central issue in a number of cases, almost all of them involving building contracts. The problem is easy to state: P and D have an agreement for P to construct a building for a total consideration of $X. When P is partially finished, D breaches. If the contract price and the value of the work to date roughly coincide, there is usually little problem in determining P's recovery. The standard …