Unit Synopsis
In this unit you will examine the jurisdiction of Equity, which includes the law of Trusts. Weeks 1-3 focus on the history of Equity and its relationship with the common law, equitable rights and interests, equitable assignment, and fiduciary obligations. Weeks 4-8 focus on the law of Trusts, including types of trusts, trust creation and variation, trustee duties, rights and powers, breach of trust, beneficiary rights and remedies, resulting trusts, and constructive trusts. Weeks 9-12 focus on undue influence, unconscionable transactions, estoppel in equity and equitable remedies. This unit meets the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board requirements for Equity, including Trusts.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: 24 credit points of Law units including LAWS11057. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Online discussion forum | 10% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Examination | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 86.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 19.48% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student evaluation 2023
Useful feedback score lower
I will review my feedback processes for unit 1 2025.
I reviewed my assessment feedback processes for T1 2025. The useful feedback score for T1 2025 was 86.67%, up from 77.78% in T1 2024.
Source: Unsolicited email feedback 2023 T1 student
Courtesy email to thank you for your time and effort you have put into the unit, in particular the learning material. The shorter videos are great and the revise and reflect on your PP are fantastic, allowing students to learn the material in small bite size pieces before moving onto the next concept.
I will continue to develop resources using this approach.
I will take this feedback into account when I update the lecture videos and other resources in preparation for the next offering of this unit, in T2 2026.
Source: The exam content should be reduced for the 2.5hrs
Student evaluation 2023 T3
I reviewed the complexity of exam questions following the 2023 T3 exams and implemented changes in 2024 T1.
Equity and Trusts is a Preistley unit. In T1 2025, the College of Law introduced hand written invigilated exams for Priestley units. I tailored the exam questions to this setting and the 2.5 hour frame. To allay student anxieties related to the hand written format, I provided significant exam preparation support (e.g. time management etc).
Source: SUTE
The content is hard to digest ... There should be the key points made with case law stated on each slide instead of needing more information from the speaker.
My usual practice is to present a case decision outline on PPT/s and speak to the slide/s to explain the details of the court's reasoning, outcome etc. I will take these comments into account when revising the lectures in preparation for T2 2026. I will also include guidance in the lectures about the value of listening and note taking skills to legal practice.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
According to one student, for the dicussion forum assessment, '[s]tudents were clearly using ChatGPT and not genuine discourse'.
I will work with the School of Business and Law educational developers to review this assessment with the aim of mitigating the risk of AI use for the T2 2026 offering.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
I think the lecturer does an amazing job in explaining things and providing feedback
This is great feedback. I will continue to do my best to explain content clearly and to provide useful feedback.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Explain the principles of Equity and Trusts and examine their relationship to broader legal principles
- Identify relevant equitable doctrines and apply them to problem-based scenarios
- Analyse and evaluate the role played by equity and trusts in common law jurisdictions
- Research, critically analyse, and evaluate case law and theoretical aspects of equity.
This unit satisfies the Priestley 11 requirements for Equity, which also includes Trusts, as approved by the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online discussion forum | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • • | • |
| 3 - Examination | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |