Family Law (Property) is designed to prepare students (including current practitioners) for running property cases involving trusts at a best-practice level.  There will be an assumed level of knowledge and the course will build on either LLB Family Law, JD Family Law or LLM Foundations of Family Law.   Many property disputes in family law for parties with moderate to substantial wealth or a family business will involve trusts.  Increasingly, self managed superannuation funds are being used by couples.  These are also based on a trust deed.  Thus the focus of this course is on an area of considerable complexity but which is increasingly part of the ‘bread and butter’ of family law property disputes and which can have significant financial consequences for the parties if not properly addressed.

Family Law jurisprudence empowers judges to ‘ignore’ many of the usual rules regarding the ‘corporate veil’ and trust organisation to re-allocate wealth.  However, the usual rules may still apply when considering the consequences of that reallocation (such as re-settling a trust or possible capital gains liability).  The High Court in two leading decisions of Ascot Investments v Harper and Spry v Kennon have created a range of categories and complexities within this area of law.  Spry is the author of the renowned text Equitable Remedies.

This course is intended to engage deeply with the role of trusts and will build an understanding of how they operate and the potential areas of risk for practitioners. It is not intended to cover the general principles regarding property and superannuation within family law nor analyse the ‘four steps’ approach usually taken in resolving property disputes.

The topics covered at this level will build on the undergraduate / JD / Foundations courses as it will introduce new material at a significantly more advanced and in-depth level.