Trusts, powers and liens: An exercise in ground-clearing

Australian courts routinely award different — and mutually incompatible —proprietary remedies on materially identical facts. This is contrary to thefundamental principle of justice that like cases must be treated alike. If thelaw of proprietary remedies in Australia is to be brought back to order, theremust first occur a significant exercise in ground-clearing to identify thecrucial differences between the major forms of imposed proprietaryremedies and explain why those differences matter. That is the aim of thisarticle. The hope is that by repositioning the debate over the award ofproprietary remedies onto more secure foundations, the real business ofdistilling a coherent and principled Australian law of imposed proprietaryremedies can commence.