BCom/LLB(Hons) (Auck), LLM (Cantab), LLM (Auck), CMInstD
Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Humanities
Contact
Email: jessica.palmer@otago.ac.nz
Teaching
Jessica's current teaching includes Property Law and Wills and Trusts. She has previously taught Contract Law, Commercial Equity, Sales and Insurance Law.
Research interests
Jessica's research interests include the law of obligations, restitution, equity and commercial law.
Most recently, her research has been concerned with claims that many trusts used today ought to be disregarded because too much power rests in one party who may treat the trust assets as its own. Her publications have been influential on the approach taken by courts to these allegations in New Zealand and New South Wales. For example, two of her articles on sham trusts and the control of express trusts have been heavily relied on by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in cases that have attracted much attention for trust and matrimonial property lawyers (Clayton v Clayton [2015] NZCA 30; Official Assignee v Wilson [2008] NZLR 45). A Court of Appeal judge and New Zealand Law Commissioner has cited her work as an example of the important contribution academic lawyers can make to the development of law (G Hammond, “Judges and Academics in New Zealand” (2013) 25 NZULR 681 at 690).
Jessica is an author in two leading textbooks in New Zealand on the law of trusts and on civil remedies (A Butler (ed) Equity and Trusts in New Zealand (2nd ed) Wellington, Thomson Reuters (2009; P Blanchard (ed) Civil Remedies in New Zealand (2nd ed) Wellington, Thomson Reuters (2011)). She is also a contributing editor to the New Zealand Law Review on Equity and Restitution.
Background
Jessica joined the Otago University Law Faculty in 2005. She has received university teaching awards and national writing awards for her research. She was appointed to the Reference Panel of the New Zealand Law Commission’s Review of the Law of Trusts (2010-2013). In 2015, she won the University of Otago Rowheath Trust Award and Carl Smith Medal for outstanding scholarly research achievement across all disciplines.
Jessica has previously worked in a large commercial law firm in New Zealand and as a Judges’ Clerk at the Auckland High Court. She also tutored in Equity at the University of Auckland. In 2004 she won the New Zealand Law Foundation Ethel Benjamin Prize enabling her to read for an LLM at Cambridge University. Jessica is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society and a Leonard Cowling Scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
She was Dean of Law from 2018, until she was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor Humanities in 2021.
Publications
Palmer, J., Peart, N., Briggs, M., & Henaghan, M. (Eds.). (2017). Law and policy in modern family finance: Property division in the 21st century. Cambridge, UK: Intersentia, 420p.
Palmer, J., & Rickett, C. (2017). The revolution and legacy of the discretionary trust. Journal of Equity, 11, 157-184.
Palmer, J. (2016). Unjust enrichment, proprietary subrogation and unsatisfactory explanations. Singapore Academy of Law Journal, 28, 955-983.
Palmer, J. (2016). Implications of the new rule against penalties. Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, 47(2), 305-326.
Palmer, J., & Peart, N. (2015). Clayton v Clayton: A step too far? New Zealand Family Law Journal, 8(6), 114-120.
Palmer, J., Peart, N., Briggs, M., & Henaghan, M. (Eds.). (2017). Law and policy in modern family finance: Property division in the 21st century. Cambridge, UK: Intersentia, 420p.
Edited Book - Research
Palmer, J., & Rickett, C. (2017). The revolution and legacy of the discretionary trust. Journal of Equity, 11, 157-184.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2016). Unjust enrichment, proprietary subrogation and unsatisfactory explanations. Singapore Academy of Law Journal, 28, 955-983.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2016). Implications of the new rule against penalties. Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, 47(2), 305-326.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J., & Peart, N. (2015). Clayton v Clayton: A step too far? New Zealand Family Law Journal, 8(6), 114-120.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2016). Restitution. New Zealand Law Review, 2, 435-457.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2015). Equity and trusts. New Zealand Law Review, 1, 141-169.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2014). Access to justice for consumers. In K. Tokeley (Ed.), Consumer law in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 495-523). Wellington, New Zealand: LexisNexis.
Chapter in Book - Research
Griffiths, S., & Palmer, J. (2013). Sham, tax avoidance, and a GAAR: A New Zealand perspective. In E. Simpson & M. Stewart (Eds.), Sham transactions. (pp. 228-242). Oxford University Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J., & Geddis, A. (2012). What was that thing you said? The NZ Supreme Court's vexing Vector Gas decision. University of Queensland Law Journal, 31(2), 287-305.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2011). Controlling the trust. Otago Law Review, 12(3), 473-496.
Journal - Research Article
Rickett, C., & Palmer, J. (2011). Proprietary remedies. In P. Blanchard (Ed.), Civil remedies in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 423-458). Wellington, New Zealand: Brookers.
Chapter in Book - Research
Rickett, C., & Palmer, J. (2011). Restitutionary remedies. In P. Blanchard (Ed.), Civil remedies in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 383-422). Wellington, New Zealand: Brookers.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J., & Peart, N. (2011). Trust principles overlooked. New Zealand Law Journal, (December), 423-426.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2010). Attempting clarification of constructive trusts. New Zealand Universities Law Review, 24(1), 113-135.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2010). Theories of the trust and what they might mean for beneficiary rights to information. New Zealand Law Review, 541-565.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2010). Remedies for breach of fiduciary duty in joint ventures. In J. Berryman & R. Bigwood (Eds.), The law of remedies: New directions in the common law. (pp. 547-574). Toronto, Canada: Irwin Law.
Chapter in Book - Research
Rickett, C., & Palmer, J. (2010). Trusts jurisprudence in the High Court. New Zealand Law Journal, 9, 353-360.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2009). Constructive trusts. In A. S. Butler (Ed.), Equity and trusts in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 335-365). Wellington, New Zealand: Thomson Reuters.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J. (2009). Restitution. In A. S. Butler (Ed.), Equity and trusts in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 1227-1248). Wellington, New Zealand: Thomson Reuters.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J. (2009). Resulting trusts. In A. S. Butler (Ed.), Equity and trusts in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 307-333). Wellington, New Zealand: Thomson Reuters.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J. (2009). Sham trusts. In A. S. Butler (Ed.), Equity and trusts in New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 393-413). Wellington, New Zealand: Thomson Reuters.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J., & Rickett, C. (2008). Joint ventures and fiduciary law. In M. Chetwin & P. A. Joseph (Eds.), Joint ventures law. (pp. 81-93). Christchurch, New Zealand: Centre for Commercial & Corporate Law, School of Law, University of Canterbury.
Chapter in Book - Research
Palmer, J. (2008). What makes a trust a sham? New Zealand Law Journal, (September), 319-320.
Journal - Research Other
Palmer, J. (2007). Dealing with the emerging popularity of sham trusts. New Zealand Law Review, 81-112.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2006). Understanding the director's fiduciary obligation. New Zealand Business Law Quarterly, 12(4), 315-335.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2005). Twinsectra: Overruled or clarified? New Zealand Law Journal, (December), 410-412.
Journal - Research Other
Palmer, J. (2005). Chasing a will-o'-the-wisp? Making sense of bad faith and wrongdoers in change of position. Restitution Law Review, 13, 53-81.
Journal - Research Article
Palmer, J. (2005). The Privy Council on being (dis)honest about dishonest assistance. University of Queensland Law Journal, 24(2), 539-544.
Journal - Research Other
Palmer, J. (2004). The availability of allowances in equity: Rewarding the bad guy. New Zealand Universities Law Review, 21(1), 146-172.
Journal - Research Article
Rickett, J. (2001). Disgorgement for breach of contract: My loss, your gain? Te Mata Koi Auckland University Law Review, 9(2), 375-403.
Journal - Research Article
