Description

Paper abstract

Equity’s control of power is vital to the integrity and function of a range of relationships and institutions that rely on the devolution of power for their function. It is an important legal phenomenon to explain and justify. This chapter examines the relevance and limits of legal status as a justification for equity’s control of power. Some of the problems with status have been pointed out before, particularly in relation to fiduciary loyalty. This chapter makes the broader argument that status should not be relied upon to justify equity’s control of power generally, including but not limited to, fiduciary loyalty. Status is a convenient analytical short-cut or by-pass to what is the (real) justification for this phenomenon; equity’s commitment to the terms on which a power is held. The chapter goes on to outline this commitment, its underlying normative values and consider how it may, in the future, help to answer some of the questions that status has previously been relied upon to answer, such as equity’s role in controlling contractual powers and the normative value(s) underpinning fiduciary loyalty.

About the Speaker

Dr Jessica Hudson is an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales.  She researches and teaches in multiple areas of private law, including equity, trusts, remedies and unjust enrichment, as well as corporations and financial services law. Prior to lecturing, Jessica was a solicitor at King & Wood Mallesons, and worked as a Tipstaff to the Honourable Justice Julie Ward when Her Honour was a Judge in the Equity Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.