Priestley 11 · Usually third year
Equity and Trusts for Australian law students
Equity is the subject most students describe as the one that finally makes the rest of the degree fit together, usually about three weeks after they wanted it to. It is also the subject with the densest reading load, because the principles are worked out across long lines of authority rather than set out in a statute.
What the subject covers
- The equitable jurisdiction, the maxims, and the relationship with the common law
- Fiduciary obligations, and the no conflict and no profit rules
- Breach of confidence
- Equitable estoppel
- Express trusts: the three certainties, formalities, and the duties of a trustee
- Resulting and constructive trusts, including the remedial constructive trust
- Tracing, and equitable remedies including specific performance and injunctions
Topic coverage varies between law schools and between jurisdictions. Your subject guide is the one that counts.
Cases you will meet in an Australian Equity and Trusts course
Three decisions that turn up in Equity and Trusts across Australian law schools. Some of them are English decisions that Australian courses still teach as core authority, so this is a list of what you will be taught rather than a list of Australian judgments. Treat it as a starting point rather than a reading list. Your course sets its own, and it is the one that counts.
Barnes v Addy
(1874) LR 9 Ch App 244
Third party liability for knowing receipt and knowing assistance.
Muschinski v Dodds
(1985) 160 CLR 583
The constructive trust as a remedial response to unconscionable retention.
Baumgartner v Baumgartner
(1987) 164 CLR 137
Applying that reasoning to a pooled domestic relationship.
How the subject is assessed
Equity is heavy on the research essay, because the doctrinal arguments are genuinely open. Expect a long problem question as well, usually combining a trust with a fiduciary claim, and an exam that rewards knowing which line of authority is binding.
Using CaseSharp for Equity
Problem questions
Equity problems reward identifying the right cause of action before the remedy. Filter by court and jurisdiction to find the binding line rather than the interesting one.
Case notes
Long joint judgments are the norm here. Briefs separate ratio from the reasoning around it and keep every point linked to its paragraph.
AGLC4 essays
Equity essays carry forty or more footnotes and cite English authority alongside Australian. Full form, short form and pinpoints come out ready to paste, with a manual-review flag where a reference is ambiguous.
Exam scaffolds
Scaffold by cause of action, with elements underneath. This is the subject where an overruled or distinguished authority on a scaffold does the most damage, so check the citing cases before SWOTVAC.
CaseSharp is a research and study tool. It does not write your problem question answer or your research essay. Every substantive output carries a human-review notice, and where there is no authority to support an answer, Sharp says so instead of inventing a case to fill the gap.
Try it on a Equity question
Create a free account and run a Equity query like the one below, so you can see what comes back before you decide anything.
knowing assistance Barnes v Addy
73,000 audited Australian decisions, current to the end of April 2026.