Description

Traditionally in Singapore, though only of persuasive authority, decisions of the courts of England and Wales in the law of trusts have been treated with a great deal of respect, which is, of course, only understandable. But recent decisions from those courts concerning breach of trust, tracing, and the relationship between the law of trusts and the law of unjust enrichment have, arguably, taken the English law in a novel direction which can be subject to much criticism. By contrast, Australian authorities and commentators have defended a more traditional approach in regard to these matters. In the near future, the Singapore courts may have to decide whether the English and Australian authorities can be reconciled, and if not (as seems likely), which is of greater assistance in deciding cases in the Singapore context.

About The Speaker
Professor James Penner is the Vice Dean (Research) at NUS Law Faculty and appointed as the Kwa Geok Choo Professor of Property Law in July 2017.
He took an honours B.Sc in Genetics at the University of Western Ontario in 1985, an LL.B at the University of Toronto in 1988 and completed his D.Phil at University College, Oxford in 1992. Prior to joining NUS Law in 2013, his publications included the prizewinning monograph The Idea of Property Law, and a sole-authored textbook. The former won the UK Society of Public Teachers of Law first prize for outstanding scholarship by a younger scholar (now renamed the ‘SLS Peter Birks Prize’).
Since 1992, he has taught law at Brunel University, the London School of Economics, King’s College London, and from 2008 to 2013 as Professor of Property Law at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, serving from 2011 to 2013 as Head of Department. He has also been a visiting professor in China, Canada, Belgium, and Australia. He has established himself as one of the world’s leading experts in the philosophy of property and the law of trusts, and writes more widely in the areas of private law and the philosophy of law.