Associate Professor Struan Scott

LLM (Otago) SJD (Duke)

I commenced legal study at Otago.  Following admission as a barrister and solicitor I returned to my home town and became a staff solicitor in a medium sized firm serving the needs of a mid-sized town and associated farming community.  A wish to contribute to legal theory brought me back to Otago and, in 1990, I became a permanent member of the Faculty.

I currently teach a range of subjects, from a general Property Law paper to specialist papers dealing with Banking Law, Company Law, and the Law of Restitution. 

My research interests mirror my teaching with published articles in all these areas. These include:

• The PPSA: The Continued Relevance of Conventional Legal Principles in Determining the Existence of a Security Interest (2009) 15 New Zealand Business Law Quarterly 20
• Mistaken Improvers and a Recognisable Law of Unjust Enrichment, in Structure and Justification in Private Law: Essays for Peter Birks, C Rickett & R Grantham eds., Hart Publishing, Oxford (2008), 245-265.
• Rights, Remedies, Wrongs and the Bribe-taking Fiduciary, in Justifying Private Law Remedies, C Rickett ed., Hart Publishing, Oxford (2008), 33-67.
• Mistaken Bank Payments: Commercial Certainty Counts (2006) 11 Otago Law Review 209
• The Evolving Corporate Opportunity Doctrine: Is New Zealand Law Being Left Behind (2005) New Zealand Business Law Quarterly 264
• The Corporate Opportunity Doctrine and Impossibility Arguments (2003) 66 Modern Law Review 852
• Indefeasibility of title and the Registrar’s unwelcome s81 powers (1999) 7 Canterbury Law Review 246
• Indefeasibility and the Forged Mortgage [1998] New Zealand Recent Law 531
• The Remedial Restitutionary Proprietary Remedy: An Evaluation of the Extent to which Preferential Recovery should be Available for the Recovery of Money (1995) 6 Canterbury Law Review 123
• The remedial constructive trust in commercial transactions [1993] Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 330
• Mistaken Payment of Another’s Debt - Is there an equitable solution? A reflection on Westpac Banking Corporation v Rae [1993] New Zealand Recent Law Review 232
• The Argument of Subjective Devaluation: When is an Enrichment not an Enrichment? (1993) 15 New Zealand Universities Law Review 246

I am a contributing author to two New Zealand texts – Adams’ Land Transfer and Electronic Business and Technology Law.  I am also the editor of, and sole contributor to, the English text – Burgess on the Law of Loans and Borrowing.

On a lighter note, under the supervision of my son, I am actively learning about how to make LEGO models (with and without instructions).

Research Interests

Banking Law, Property Law (with particular interest in indefeasibility of title), Unjust Enrichment, Corporate Governance.

Contact Details

Email struan.scott@otago.ac.nz
Office: 9th Floor - 9N8
Tel 03 479 8675