Unnecessary and Insufficient Factual Causes

In-person event

Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney and King & Wood Mallesons are proud to be presenting a seminar with Professor Jane Stapleton. The Law School welcomes the appointment of Professor Jane Stapleton as Honorary Professor of the University of Sydney.

About the seminar

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government decided to take swingeing lock-down measures in March 2020 which resulted in billions of dollars of business interruption loss to hundreds of thousands of enterprises in that country. In a landmark 2021 decision concerning insurance cover for such losses a unanimous UK Supreme Court confirmed that the law recognises that an unnecessary and insufficient factor may be a factual cause of an indivisible loss.

The talk, presented by Honorary Professor Jane Stapleton (University of Sydney) will describe the revolutionary procedure deployed in the case, how the Justices’ insightful introduction of non-insurance cases and commentary was crucial to the crafting of their decision and how profound an impact that decision may have across the landscape of the law.

The event will be chaired by the Honourable Justice Julie Ward, President of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of New South Wales.

About the speakers

Jane Stapleton KC (Hon), FBA

Jane Stapleton is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney Law School and has held academic posts at Oxford, the University of Texas and the Australian National University as well as a number of visiting professorships including at Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia and the European University Institute. She has acted as a consultant in commercial, pharmaceutical, medical and environmental litigation in the US and UK.

She is an Emeritus Council Member of the American Law Institute, an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn, an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. In 2020 she was appointed an Honorary Queen’s Counsel by HM Queen Elizabeth II. In 2022 she stepped down as the 38th Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge where she continues as a Life Fellow.

The Honourable Justice Julie Ward

Justice Ward completed her Bachelor of Laws at Sydney Law School in 1982 with first class honours and the University Medal for law. She was the youngest female partner to be appointed at Mallesons in 1998. In 2008, Justice Ward was the first female solicitor to be directly appointed to the Supreme Court bench.

In 2022, Justice Ward was appointed as President of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court of NSW, only the second female to be appointed as a President of the Court of Appeal.

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Monday 29 May 2023

Time: 5.30-7pm (Registration from 5.30pm for a 5.45-7pm seminar. Cocktail function to follow.)

Venue: Level 61, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000

CPD points: 1.25

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This event is proudly co-presented by Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, and King & Wood Mallesons.