The Scope and Structure of Unjust Enrichment

This book provides a comprehensive and structured approach to unjust enrichment, combining elements of the absence of basis and unjust factors approaches and arguing for a legal framework that includes performance claims and excludes non-performance claims. It draws heavily on comparative material from Germany, Scotland, and South Africa and concludes with a treatment of defences.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 22 February 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate discussions surrounding the structure of unjust enrichment, making a significant contribution to the field. Addressing the critiques of its subject matter, it presents a well-defined framework for this area of private law, contending that while unjust enrichment serves the purpose of rectifying defective enrichments, whether through performance or other means, there is room for normative pluralism in how the law achieves this.

Drawing extensively from comparative material from Germany, Scotland, and South Africa, the book then advocates for a legal framework that combines elements of the absence of basis and unjust factors approaches. It assesses how this structure can be mapped against the various causes of action that constitute unjust enrichment, arguing that some are performance claims—reversing a deliberate, intentional performance—and others are non-performance claims. Other claims, often included in books on unjust enrichment, such as "necessity," should be excluded from the subject area.

The book concludes with a treatment of defenses.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509942442