Goff & Jones: The Law of Unjust Enrichment
9th Edition
Series: Common Law Library
Practice Area: Litigation
ISBN: 9780414055230
Published by: Sweet & Maxwell
Authors:Professor Charles Mitchell; Professor Paul Mitchell; Dr Stephen Watterson
Publication Date: 21 Nov 2016
Format: Hardback

Goff & Jones is the leading work on the law of unjust enrichment. The first edition appeared fifty years ago, in 1966, and successive editions have played a major role in establishing the central importance of the subject for private and commercial law. The text is comprehensive in coverage and written by highly respected scholars who analyse and explain the principles governing claims in unjust enrichment, demonstrating how these principles have been applied through detailed discussion of case-law. The book is frequently cited in court and continues to set the agenda for future developments in the field.

The new 9th Edition is completely up-to-date and contains detailed discussion of important decisions since the last edition. Many chapters have been rewritten to take account of significant new cases, and their impact on topics including the valuation of enrichments, the recovery of benefits from remote recipients, the recovery of benefits transferred by mistake, the recovery of money paid as tax that is not due, and the content of the tracing rules and their significance for the award of proprietary remedies.

The 9th edition deals with the following six key matters in relation to making a claim:

Explains how a claim in unjust enrichment can be precluded where a defendant’s enrichment is mandated by a statute, judgment, natural obligation, or contract
Analyses the principles governing the identification and valuation of enrichment, and explains how these apply to claims for different types of benefit
Considers the requirement that a defendant’s gain has been acquired at the claimant’s expense
Discusses the different grounds for restitution: lack of consent and want of authority; mistake; duress; undue influence and unconscionable bargains; failure of basis; free acceptance; necessity; secondary liability; ultra vires receipts and payments by public bodies; etc
Examines defences including change of position; ministerial receipt; bona fide purchase; estoppel; counter-restitution impossible; passing on; limitation; legal incapacity; illegality
Explicates in detail personal and proprietary remedies for unjust enrichment
The new edition contains detailed discussion of the following cases of major importance:

Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v HMRC (No.1) [2012] 2 AC 337 – on the recovery of money paid as tax that is not due
Pitt v Holt [2013] 2 AC 108 – on mistake and the rescission of voluntary transactions
Benedetti v Sawiris [2014] AC 938 – on the valuation of services and other benefits
Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC (No.2) [2014] STC 1761, [2015] STC 2014 – on awards of compound interest as restitution of the time value of money
Investment Trust Companies (in liq) v HMRC [2015] STC 1280 - on the relation between statutory and common law rights to restitution, and the requirement that an enrichment must have been gained at the claimant’s expense
Federal Republic of Brazil v Durant International Corp [2016] AC 297 – on tracing and the recovery of misappropriated funds
Bank of Cyprus UK Ltd v Menelaou [2016] AC 176 – on subrogation and tracing
Patel v Mirza [2016] UKSC 42 – on the recovery of benefits transferred under illegal contracts
Re D&D Wines International Ltd (in liq) [2016] UKSC 47 – on constructive trusts as remedies for unjust enrichment