Lim Fang-Zhou Noah, ‘Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd; Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd; Wrench v FirstRand Bank Ltd [2025] UKSC 33 – clarification regarding fiduciary duties’ | Private Law Theory

Lim Fang-Zhou Noah, ‘Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd; Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd; Wrench v FirstRand Bank Ltd [2025] UKSC 33 – clarification regarding fiduciary duties’

steve on 20 October 2025 — Leave a Comment

ABSTRACT
In the long-awaited ruling in Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd; Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd; Wrench v FirstRand Bank Ltd [2025] UKSC 33, the UK Supreme Court provided welcome clarity on the circumstances under which fiduciary duties are deemed to arise. This analysis considers the reasoning underpinning the judgment, and considers the impact of the decision on modern commerce.

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Lim Fang-Zhou Noah, Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd; Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd; Wrench v FirstRand Bank Ltd [2025] UKSC 33 – clarification regarding fiduciary duties, Trusts & Trustees. Published: 15 October 2025.

Posted in Equity and Trusts

Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

‘Private law and the courts in an age of disruption: Bending, breaking or restating?’: Monash University Faculty of Law, 29-30 October 2026

Private law has long presented itself as a domain of incremental development, doctrinal coherence, and principled reasoning. Yet contemporary pressures, including digital platforms and AI, climate change, mass harm events, financial innovation, and shifting conceptions of property, personhood, and responsibility, raise profound questions about the stability and adaptability of private law’s core concepts and doctrines … (registration)

9th Annual Conference on the Future of the Commercial Contract, London Centre for Commercial and Financial Law, 30 October 2026

This year’s theme is the impact of international trade law and dispute settlement on commercial contracts. Examples are shipping contracts, charterparties, long term investment contracts. The call for papers is open and included here … (more)

Market Regulation and Private Law (Book Launch): online, 5 November 2026

The book offers a new theoretical perspective on the relationship between market regulation and private law in the face of contemporary challenges, such as climate change, the digitalisation of the marketplace, and growing inequality, with significant practical implications for a wide range of areas … (more)

Irish Association of Law Teachers, Annual Conference: Queen’s University Belfast, 27-29 November 2026

The general theme of the conference is ‘The Future of Legal Education: Keeping People at the Centre’. The parallel sessions will begin on Friday 27st November afternoon. The Plenary session will be on Saturday 28nd November in the form of a moderated panel discussion on the theme of the conference … (more, call for papers)

Trust and Trusts in Commercial Law: University of Western Australia Law School, 3-4 December 2026

The aims of the conference are to provide academics with an informal and supportive environment in which to present work in progress, and to facilitate a collegial discussion of issues related to teaching and publishing in private and commercial law … (more, call for papers)

Australian and New Zealand Tort and Compensation Researchers and Teachers Network Symposium: University of Sydney and Online, 15-16 February 2027

We welcome contributions which reflect a wide range of topics and approaches including doctrinal, theoretical, critical, empirical, reform and social justice, and pedagogical. We are particularly interested in providing opportunities for early career researchers and teachers to present their work and network with other colleagues … (more, call for proposals to present)

19th Annual International Conference on Contracts (KCON XIX), Case Western Reserve University, 19-20 March 2027

KCON welcomes presentations on projects at every level of development, including recently published articles, drafts, works-in-progress, preliminary ideas, and thought experiments … (more, call for proposals)

‘Crises in Private International Law’: 6th Early Career Researchers´ Conference, Munich, 9-10 April 2027

We welcome contributions on conflict-of-laws and international civil procedural law at the national, European, and international levels. The conference language is German; however, we also welcome warmly presentations in English … (more, call for papers)

‘The Common Core of European Private Law’, 32nd Annual General Meeting, Krakow, 13-14 May 2027

The meeting, focused on Long-Term Business Relations and Comparative Private Law, will take place at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland, under the direction of Professor Piotr Tereszkiewicz … (more)

Association for Law, Property, & Society (ALPS) Annual Meeting, Cardiff School of Law and Politics, 27-30 May 2027

ALPS annual meetings include participants representing numerous countries and working in common law, civil law, Indigenous laws, international law, transnational law, and mixed legal traditions. Presentation submissions on any subject related to property law and the practices that shape property norms and institutions are welcome … (more)

Association of Law and Political Economy (ALPE), Annual Meeting, Boston MA, 9-10 June 2027

ALPE invites proposals for our second annual meeting. Panels, roundtables, and individual paper proposals are welcome. We encourage submissions by academics, organizers, practitioners, policy professionals, and others … (more)

Anti-SLAPP Law in Canada and Beyond: University of New Brunswick, 17-18 June 2027

The theme of the conference is to assess the effectiveness of Canada’s anti-SLAPP laws and to draw lessons from the Canadian experience for other jurisdictions. As one of the earlier jurisdictions to adopt anti-SLAPP legislation, the strengths and weaknesses of Canada’s laws are becoming apparent … (more, call for papers)

Obligations XII: King’s College London, 13-16 July 2027

The Obligations Conference brings together scholars and practitioners from across the common law world to discuss current issues in contract law, the law of torts, equity, unjust enrichment, and private law theory … (more)

7th Modern Studies in the Law of Trusts, Wealth Management & Philanthropy conference, Monash Malaysia, 20-21 July 2027

As the world navigates an era of overlapping crises, whether economic, environmental, geopolitical or social, the law of trusts, wealth management and philanthropy faces mounting pressure to reconcile the free movement of wealth with growing demands for responsibility, accountability and impact … (more, call for papers)

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