University of Oxford

Faculty Member, Law

Fellow and Tutor in Law

Somerville College

About

B.C.L. (Oxon) M.A. (Cantab) M.A. (Oxon)

I am Fellow and Tutor in Law at Somerville College, Oxford, and a member of the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford. I studied law as an undergraduate in Cambridge and as a graduate student in Oxford. I have also worked as a research assistant on property and trust law projects at the Law Commission, and was closely involved in the Commission's Trustee Exemption Clauses project (Law Com 301).

My research interests are principally in the law of trusts, in particular examining the consequences of the improper exercise of trustees' powers.

At present I am mostly concerned with the operation of the so-called 'rule in Re Hastings-Bass' which appears to allow a trust beneficiary to have a transaction entered into by the trustees set aside, on the basis that the trustees did not fully understand the consequences of the transaction. I am looking to establish that the some less controversial applications of the rule can be explained in terms of other doctrine, including mistake and the ultra vires exercise of statutory powers, and that the scope of the rule outside of these cases should be much narrower than it appears to be.

I am also concerned with the proprietary mechanisms and consequences of Re Hastings-Bass. In particular, there are severe difficulties where third parties have relied upon the apparently valid exercise by the trustees of their powers. Any subsequent dispute is in substance between the trust beneficiaries and a third party.

I give undergraduate tutorials in trusts, land law and Roman law, and lecture on remedies for breach of trust.

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