The possibility of submitting concurrent claims in such categories as tort and contract epitomises a Gordian knot of private law. It seems to be unfair. The fact that a plaintiff can concurrently submit claims in more than one category (say both contract and tort) puts them in a dominant position over the defendant. Apparently, it is precisely the internal intelligibility and distinctiveness of private law’s categories (such as contract & tort) which justifies such availability of the choice to the plaintiff. The plot thickens when a foreign element/s is present in the factual scenario of a case. Would it be possible for the plaintiff to use the availability of concurrent claims to impose their choice of jurisdiction and/or applicable law on a defendant? The talk will delve into these complex issues.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Sagi Peari researches and teaches within private law, commercial law, international law and their intersections. He is an author of two research monographs published by Oxford University Press: The Foundation of Choice-of-Law: Choice & Equality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018) and International Negotiable Instruments (with Professor Benjamin Geva) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). Sagi is the only Australian academic who has authored two research monographs in law with Oxford University Press. His papers have been accepted for publication in leading UK, US, Canadian and Australian journals, including Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal, American Journal of Comparative Law, Delaware Journal of Corporate Law and the University of Toronto Law Journal. Presently, with Professor Warren Swain of the University of Auckland, Sagi leads a global interdisciplinary initiative to tackle the current incoherency of private law.
In essence, Sagi’s scholarship lays out a global theory of just public institutions and the legal effects of cross-border interactions, which extends its conceptual argument to concrete legal categories: contracts, torts, restitution, negotiable instruments, corporations and taxation. His work shows how the traditional legal doctrines, principles and concepts can be accommodated and qualified within the advancing reality of the digital age and online communications.
Sagi holds an SJD degree from the University of Toronto where he was the recipient of the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier and Connaught Doctoral Fellowships. He was also a recipient of the Hauser Global Fellowship at New York University Law School, and of the Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. One of Sagi’s papers received the best paper prize award from the American Society of International Law. Another paper received the best paper prize award from the Corporate Law Teachers Association of Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region.

The Law Society of Hong Kong has awarded this seminar 1.5 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points.