Jointly organised by the Centre for Law & Business (CLB) and the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford, the conference on Equity, Trusts and Commerce took place in NUS Law (Bukit Timah Campus) on 13 and 14 April 2016.

The conference brought together researchers from the NUS Faculty of Law and the Oxford University Faculty of law, plus other experts from around the world to discuss one of the most vital aspects of private law, that is, the impact of equity and trusts law in the commercial context, including but not restricted to the law governing fiduciaries, equitable remedies, trusts in wealth management, and trusts in commercial transactions. The significance of work in this area for Singapore is augmented by Singapore’s ambition to be the leading commercial law centre in the region.

The following papers were given:

• James Penner (NUS), ‘”Sort of” Backwards Tracing’
• Tan Cheng Han and Wee Meng Seng (NUS), ‘Equity and the Protection of Minority Shareholders in Companies’
• Peter Watts (Auckland), ‘The Intersection of Agency Law with the Law of Trusts’
• Deborah DeMott (Duke), ‘Accessory Disloyalty: Comparative Perspectives on Substantial Assistance to Fiduciary Breach’
• Jamie Glister (Sydney), ‘Corporate Accessories’
• Richard Nolan (York), ‘The Enforcement of Modern Trust Structures’
• Sarah Worthington (Cambridge), ‘Is a Knowing Recipient a ‘Real’ Trustee?’
• Elaine Chew (NUS), ‘Arbitration Provisions in Trust Instruments – Why Should They Not be Enforceable?’
• Michael Bridge (NUS), ‘Certainty Issues in Assignments, Charges, and Trusts’
• William Swadling (Oxford), ‘The Nature of Recipient Liability’
• Paul Davies (Oxford), ‘Bribes and Equity’
• Robert Stevens (Oxford), ‘Floating Trusts’
• Simon Douglas (Oxford), ‘The Rectification of Trusts’
• Tang Hang Wu (SMU) ‘Equity in the Market Place: Reviewing the Use of Unconscionability to Restrain Calls on Performance Bonds’

We hope that this will be the first in a series of a biannual conference between National University of Singapore and University of Oxford, on this area of law.