糖心原创

We are delighted that the next meeting of the Property Law Research Group will be held on 23^rd October from 11-1pm in A29 LASS.

The session will be led by Dr Rebecca Bruekers and is titled ‘The Expandable Limits of Codified Equity’. An abstract is provided below:

 “Equity is often said to be a principle common to most if not all legal systems of the world. However, notable differences are present between how common and civil law jurisdictions enable judges to use equity. Through the lens of the ‘Beuningen Torture case’, revolving around a man claiming the inheritance of the woman whose death he caused, this presentation will address an example of hesitance of judges in the Dutch legal system to resort to equity in their decision-making process. Despite being presented with a case where the letter of the appliable law clearly did not match its spirit, judges of the District Court and Court of Appeal refused to let equity temper the harsh outcome of that law, causing significant public outrage in the process. It was not until the case reached the Supreme Court that equity — as codified in the Civil Code — was applied. While the outcome reached by the Supreme Court has been celebrated as a just one, the reasoning in all three judgments leaves much to be desired. This case therefore provides an interesting case study of what happens when judges stretch the limits of equity in the face of public pressure.”