CPLC Seminar: 'Unjust enrichment and Statute: The Case of Settlement Distributions' / 'An Update on Accident Compensation'

‘Unjust enrichment and Statute: The Case of Settlement Distributions’

Speaker: Professor Simone Degeling, University of New South Wales

Australian federal collective civil procedures permit claims by one representative party on behalf of those whose claims are similar, typically because there is a common question of law or fact and through claims which are connected through same, similar or related circumstances. Class actions may be structured as opt out proceedings, or as closed class. At judgment or settlement, res judicata applies to all group members who have not opted out. The money sum thereby obtained is then distributed. This analysis examines the unjust enrichments which may arise in implementing settlement distributions and the consequences for the application of Part IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth). It also interrogates the relationship between unjust enrichment and statute and the normative role unjust enrichment may have in statutory interpretation.

‘An Update on Accident Compensation’

Speaker: Professor Stephen Todd, Canterbury NZ

In 1967 the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand (the Woodhouse Report) recommended the barring of actions for damages for personal injury in New Zealand and replacing them with a no-fault accident compensation scheme. The government accepted the Royal Commission’s recommendations and they were brought into effect by the Accident Compensation Act 1972. Today, fifty years after it was first proposed, the scheme remains in full force and in a form which is not different in fundamental respects from that contained in the original Act. Even so, much has happened over the years concerning the coverage of the scheme, how it is administered, the policies it seeks to achieve and its costs and funding. In the seminar I will be examining and evaluating some of the key developments as the scheme has come to its maturity.

This seminar is open to all LLM, MCL and PhD students, Faculty members and Faculty visitors.