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The Defence of “Change of Position” in English and German Law of Unjust Enrichment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Florian Mächtel

Extract

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In its § 142(1) the American Restatement of the Law of Restitution provides that “[t]he right of a person to restitution from another because of a benefit received is terminated or diminished if, after the receipt of the benefit, circumstances have so changed that it would be inequitable to require the other to make full restitution.” The notion that the recipient of an unjustified benefit must in principle return not more than the enrichment that has actually “survived” in his hands, is not only fundamental to the American law of restitution, but can also be found in English and German law.

Type
Private Law
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , 01 January 2004 , pp. 23 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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84 Goff & Jones, The Law of Restitution para. 40-002 (Sweet & Maxwell 6th ed. 2002); Burrows, The Law of Restitution 431 (Butterworths 1993); Nolan, Change of Position, in Laundering and Tracing 176, 178 (Birks ed., Clarendon Press 1995). See also, Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v. Islington London Borough Council, A.C. 669, 716 (1996). (Lord Browne-Wilkinson).Google Scholar

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122 If one believes Chen-Wishart, Unjust Factors and the Restitutionary Response, 20 O.J.L.S. 561 (2000), this might be true for England, too.Google Scholar

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128 It seems to be controversial whether it is a defence or bar, and whether there is a separate cause of action for the defendant for counter-restitution based on total failure of consideration. But these considerations are of little relevance for the purpose of this paper.Google Scholar

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