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Unjust Enrichment and Public Policy

Project description

A new tool in the legal toolkit

A person should not be unjustly enriched at another’s expense. This is a broad principle used to solve local problems and disputes. Funded by the European Research Council, the UEPP project will use this principle to solve broad societal issues. In terms of public law, it proposes a new way to assess deep societal ills. While current legal frameworks focus on the harmfulness of certain activities, the proposed framework will look at the undeserved and ill-obtained gains. In the case of global warming and fake news, both activities are harmful, yet they are immensely beneficial to strong interest groups. This is why regulations focusing on gains can prove instrumental in fighting some of the most important legal battles of our time.

Objective

The basic maxim of the law of unjust enrichment states that a person should not be unjustly enriched at anothers expense. This broad principle is currently primarily used to solve local problems and disputes between specific individuals through private litigation. The proposed project offers a paradigm shift and the use of the fundamental principle prohibiting unjust enrichment to solve broad societal issues, both as a private and a public law doctrine. This is a double paradigm shift. From the direction of the law of unjust enrichment, it requires a reconceptualization of this area of law, to adjust it to solve entirely new types of problems. From the direction of public law, it offers to refresh the way we currently look at deep societal ills such as global warming, the spread of fake news or the production of harmful goods and services. In all these contexts, and many others, current legal frameworks tend to focus on the harmfulness of certain activities. The proposed framework offers, instead, to start the analysis with undeserved and ill-obtained gains. Phenomena like global warming and fake news are problematic because they are harmful, but persistent, and so difficult to regulate, because they are immensely beneficial to strong interest groups. A regulatory perspective focusing on gains can therefore prove instrumental in fighting some of the most important legal battles of our time. This paradigm shift involves a broad project and requires a multistage research program, conducted by the PI together with a team of post-doctoral researchers. This is a high-risk high reward project; if successful, it can provide critically missing elements in the legal toolkit, that will improve our ability to solve pressing legal issues.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG

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Host institution

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 118 262,16
Address
EDMOND J SAFRA CAMPUS GIVAT RAM
91904 JERUSALEM
Israel

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 118 262,16

Beneficiaries (2)

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