MLL405 – Equity and Trusts – Research Paper Writing

Description

This assignment gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to undertake legal research in the field of equity and trusts. You will be able to further develop your research skills, and to use those skills to answer important legal questions concerning the distinctive character of equitable principles and remedies. 

You may write your research paper individually, or in pairs.

The audience for your research paper is the Unit Chair or someone with a similar degree of knowledge about and interest in private law, equity and trusts.

Your research paper should be an essay in an academic style, of the sort that one might read in (for instance) the Australian Law Journal or the Australian Bar Review. There is a long tradition in Australia and Britain of leading members of the legal profession setting out their arguments about legal doctrines and legal developments in this style, and works of this sort are often cited by judges in their own reasoning about what the law requires.
Specific Requirements

Here is the topic/question for the research paper; it is followed by some additional notes and hints:

In Target Holdings v Redfern [1966] 1 AC 421 Lord Browne-Wilkinson asked whether trustees were “liable to compensate the beneficiary not only for losses caused by the breach but also for losses which the beneficiary would, in any event have suffered, even if there had been no such breach?” (at 437)

Courts have adopted different views as to the basis of an award for equitable compensation for misapplied trust property.

Some have focussed on the performance of the fiduciary and awarded compensation on the basis of the breach of fiduciary duty alone; while others have analysed whether the breach caused the loss.

Compare these approaches and reasons for them.
Your analysis may consider (without being required or limited to):

• The significance of, and responses to, the remarks of Street J in Re Dawson (dec’d); Union Fidelity Trustee Co Ltd V Perpetual Trustee Co Ltd [1966] 2 NSWR 211 (NSWSC) that earlier authority established an “approach … (that did) … not appear to involve any inquiry into whether the loss was caused by or flowed from the breach … (but) whether the loss would have happened if there had been no breach.” (at 215)
• whether the remedial response differs according to the nature of the duty that has been breached 
• whether, in what circumstances, and to what extent, evidence may be led that the transactions caused by the unauthorised acts would have proceeded regardless of the defaulting fiduciary’s conduct
• whether the case law is tending towards a uniform approach to the issue 

Your discussion must include detailed case analyses.

The judgments referred to in the question (above), and the readings and lectures on equitable remedies and equitable compensation, provide you with a starting point for answering the question set out above. 

However, you must undertake additional research and reading in order to produce a strong argument and complete a strong assignment.
Additional instructions

Please ensure that you write in clear and grammatical English. Consistently with the remarks about the audience above, please use a formal tone and an appropriate structure. Two hallmarks of a good structure are  

1. that the heading of each section accurately describes what is dealt with in that section, and 
2. that the sequence of paragraphs within each section, and of sections overall, present a logically coherent and unfolding response to the questions asked.

Please follow AGLC 4 style for all features of your assignment, including referencing, formatting, and punctuation. 

Please include a bibliography at the end of your submitted paper, beginning on a separate page.

It is important to note that the word limit is strict and includes headings and footnotes but not the bibliography. Any additional words will not be read by the examiner.
Learning Outcomes

This task allows you to demonstrate achievement towards the following unit learning outcomes. These ULOs are aligned with specific graduate learning outcomes – that is, the skills and knowledge graduates are expected to have upon completion of their studies – and this assessment task is an important tool in determining achievement of those outcomes. If you do not demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes, you will not be successful in this unit.

It is good practice to familiarise yourself with the ULOs and GLOs as they provide guidance on the knowledge, understanding and skills you’re expected to demonstrate upon completion of the unit. In this way they can be used to guide your study.