The Law of Trusts and Equitable Obligations

It is a well written and lucid book that was researched with vigour.

The book covers the essentials of Trust law.
1. A history of Equity
2. Certainty (of intention, subject matter and objects)
3. Formalities and Constitution
4. Purpose trusts (e.g. trusts for a charity)
5. Resulting and constructive trusts
6. Trustees powers and duties
7. Liability for breach of trusts
8. Tracing

I have read the whole book, and (I know most law students will find this hard to believe) I really did enjoy it.
It flows well, and I read 100 pages with ease.
It was my recommended textbook and I am glad it was.

There are a few typos (pages 397, 541, 512, 635)but who really cares?

I think this book, now in its third edition has an excellent balance between facts, cases, principles and criticism.

Furthermore it is easy to understand.

Ignore the bad reviews, they are absolutely wrong.


Fantastic book   February 22, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is fantastic. It is hard to find a book to recommend to students that has the depth of analysis necessary for a third year topic, but outlines the various rules and principles for a broad and accurate understanding of the application of trusts. Bear in mind that this is a text book, not a cases and materials book. It is clear, well expressed, detailed, and provides sufficient academic analysis to benefit the third year student. Diagrams are used to for those who learn visually, but are not intrinsic to the text, so can be ignored if the reader wishes. My students tend to favour this book above others. Negatives: Some chapters are a little over-long and the index is appalling.


A textbook you would hate to be using   May 4, 2004
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

This textbook is very little value for money. It is the sort of book you would at best avoid to read. It really does not break the subject down in any logical manner and adds confusion with its obscure diagramms occasionally attempting to explain concepts to the reader. The only worthwile bit of the text book is the introductory part outlining the history of equitable jurisprudence. But quite frankly, for everyhing else you would be well advised to use another book. Its extremely small print and typo problems are additional factors you might want to bear in mind before buying this book.


Obtuse, baffling, badly written and riddled with typos   November 4, 2003
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

A disaster of a text book which makes an already difficult subject even more impenetrable.

Key cases are badly, yet long-windedly explained, the index is hopeless, there's no glossary, and typos confusing tranferee and tranferor abound. This book required very close editing and proof reading and despite being in its third edition, shows no evidence of having had such attention.

Run a million miles from this steaming pile of ordure. If it's you're assigned text, bad luck. refer to it to see which areas you're supposed to be covering and read another text book.

Merely my 2 pence worth – your mileage may vary.