What does the law presume when it is proven simply that one person has made a payment of money to another? Surprisingly, there are three candidate answers to this question. First, a number of nineteenth-century authorities hold that ‘when money is paid by one man to another the legal...

Beginning in the 1960s, state legislatures across the country enacted consumer protection acts that “were originally designed to supplement the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) mission of protecting consumers from ‘unfair or deceptive acts or practices’ and are referred to as...

This chapter considers the landmark status of the House of Lords in Thorner v Major [2009] UKHL 18, understanding it as an example of story-telling in the law. The chapter explores the issues surrounding the equitable doctrine of proprietary estoppel, as it applies in particular in the context...

This article addresses the approach of the law of equity to the problem of third party undue influence in the context of bank guarantees. It considers the decision of the Irish High Court in Ulster Bank v Fitzgerald and its relationship to the approach of English law, as represented by Barclays...

This article considers the situation where a family home has been purchased in joint names, without any express declaration of the beneficial interests. The courts have interpreted the applicable equitable doctrines so as to make it very difficult for a defendant to resist a claim by his or her...

This article considers the new Irish legislative scheme for cohabitants, contained in Part 15 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. The article discusses the background to the legislation, noting the increase in the prevalence of cohabitation in...

This note considers the decision of the Irish High Court in Re Prendiville (1992) which dealt with the enforcement of half-secret trusts. It confirms, in a case where the point arose for decision, that Irish law rejects “the prior acceptance rule” favoured in the English cases. The judgment...

Agencies are accustomed to considering questions of discounting — the process that makes monetary amounts comparable through time. But valuing the future is a distinctive enterprise for reasons that go beyond discounting. This Article explores two basic features of time that create challenges...

This article serves to introduce an aspect of current research related to the review of the Seychelles Civil Code and the important question of the role of trusts. The Civil Code is based on the Code Napoléon and has therefore no provision for the trust of English law. The Courts of Seychelles...

The problem of the beneficial ownership of the family home has troubled courts throughout the common law world. It has proved extremely difficult "to unravel the tangled skein of human association, and apply to it considerations of legal principle." The Irish courts have had an unusually rich...