Fountain Court Door Tenant Peter Watts made an academic contribution to 5 of the 7 speeches in the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jetivia SA v Bilta (UK) Limited (in liquidation) [2015] UKSC 23. The Supreme Court sought to clarify the circumstances in which illegality defences can be raised by fraudulent directors to claims made against them by the company’s liquidators. Lord Neuberger (with whom Lord Clarke and Lord Carnwath agreed), Lord Toulson and Lord Hodge (in their joint speech) all referred to Professor Watts’ analysis. Lord Toulson and Lord Hodge said (in para.159) they were ‘greatly helped by the analysis provided by Professor Watts’ in his article, Illegality and agency law: authorising illegal action [2011] JBL 213. Read the case here.
