EQUITY AND TRUSTS (LEVEL 5) - 2025/6

Module Overview

Welcome to the exciting world of Equity! In this course we will explore the fundamental principles of Equity as well as its greatest creation - the trust. The course is an introduction to the subject but is meant to give you a comprehensive understanding of the foundations of Equity.

Module provider

Surrey Law School

Module Leader

HOGG Claire (Law)

Number of Credits: 30

ECTS Credits: 15

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

• An introduction to the development of Equity


• The Trust


• Charitable Trusts


• Non Charitable Purpose Trusts


• Equitable Remedies


• Resulting Trusts including in a commercial context


• Common Intention Constructive trusts


•  Remedial and institutional constructive trusts


• Running a trust (trustee powers eg of advancement and rights of beneficiaries eg to vary the trust)


• Trustees and investment


• Fiduciary duties (including trustees and other fiduciaries)


• Remedies including tracing


• Secret trusts

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

• Knowledge gained from guided and independent research


• Ability to apply knowledge to answer controversial essay-type questions


• Analysis and resolution of legal issues


• Critical analysis of the relevant areas of law


• Exposition of the law using theoretical and philosophical underpinnings

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• 
  Coursework 1
  


• 
  Coursework 2
  

Two pieces of Coursework. The first piece will be submitted in January, and the second at the end of the year. Each will be on a contentious area within the subject. Students will have a choice of topics.

Formative assessment

There will be two formative assessments, each designed to enable the students to improve their essay writing and critical analysis skills.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback on their formative. Feedback, however, is not limited to the formative assignment. A major forum for the reception of feedback is the tutorial, where students will be able to test their analyses and theories and thereby improve the depth of their analysis.

Module aims

• Introduce the students to the Equitable jurisdiction and its most important creation, the trust
• Enable students to build up on their analytical skills gained in previous modules in order to be able to produce a coherent critical reflection on a difficult controversy within the subject
• Foster the student's critical analysis skills
• Improve the student's legal research skills in order to enhance their digital capabilities

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

The module is delivered in the form of lectures and tutorials. The lectures do not require any prior knowledge or preparation. Preparation for the tutorials is essential.

The lectures are aimed at introducing each topic and provide a point of departure for further independent study and reflection.

The tutorials are designed to give students the skills they need to succeed in the final assessment. Some of the tutorials in semester 1 are designed to foster particular essay writing and critical analysis skills. The tutorials in semester 2 are designed to help students gain further depth in their thinking about the examinable topics.

The discussions in the tutorials provide students with the opportunity to develop sophisticated responses to the summative assessment.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: LAW2102

Other information

The School of Law is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: Employability: Students develop important transferable skills through learning opportunities provided by this module, such as critical thinking skills, debate, problem solving, collaboration, oral and written communication skills. Digital Capabilities: Students will gain important skills of legal research. The nature of the assessment requires independent research into the contentious area set. This means a lot of emphasis is placed on enabling the students to find the right sources, using legal search engines such as Westlaw, Lexis, Heinonline and others. Global and Cultural Capabilities: The module raises students' awareness of global and cultural issues by subjecting the ancient jurisdiction of equity to scrutiny through the lens of a 21st century analysis. We question whether the doctrines of equity are well equipped to address the social and global issues posed by the modern world. By doing this we attempt to appreciate the usefulness as well as the limits of the equitable jurisdiction. Resourcefulness and Resilience: The module structure and format, as well as the assessment strategy, are aimed at giving students the confidence to own their work and their critical analysis. The issues we address are controversial ones, about which very eminent thinkers disagree fiercely. Students are encouraged to form their own views whilst independently navigating through the often challenging variety of views within the literature and case law.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.