Divergences in Equitable Third Party Liability
18 June 2026 (Thursday), 12:15 – 1:15 PM
Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Equitable third party liability has a similar structure throughout the common law world, but this is starting to change. Some of these shifts are well-known – for example the move from knowing to dishonest assistance in several countries – but others are more subtle. This seminar will identify and examine several areas where English law and Australian law are diverging, including:
(i) the nature of “trust property” in the law of knowing receipt;
(ii) whether a separate form of corporate alter ego liability exists alongside knowing receipt and assistance;
(iii) whether the liabilities of wrongdoing fiduciaries and their accessories are joint and several or several only; and
(iv) the effect of a release given to one defendant on the liabilities of other defendants.
The discussion will be of interest to Hong Kong lawyers because most of the issues discussed have not yet required exploration by the courts of Hong Kong.
Speaker
Jamie Glister is a Professor of Law at The University of Sydney, Australia. He formerly worked in the UK at the universities of Durham and Cambridge and at King’s College London. At Sydney, Jamie teaches equity, trusts and commercial law at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His research interests are chiefly in equitable doctrine and his work in that field has appeared in the Law Quarterly Review, Cambridge Law Journal, Melbourne University Law Review, Sydney Law Review and University of NSW Law Journal. With James Lee, Jamie is one of the current authors of Hanbury & Martin: Modern Equity, now in its twenty-third edition. Jamie is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Academic Member of the Chancery Bar Association. He received a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2022.
Moderator: Lusina Ho, Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Trust and Equity, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
Please register at https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=106648