7.4 Doctrine of Unjust Enrichment

The master principle: no one shall be enriched at another's expense without legal justification — the restitution law's foundation (the third branch of obligations beside contract and tort). The four elements (the answer's spine): An enrichment — a benefit received (money, goods, services, the discharge of an obligation); At the plaintiff's expense — the enrichment derived from the claimant (directly or through the conferral's chain); Unjust — without juristic base: no contract, no gift, no legal duty supporting the retention (the "unjust factor": mistake, compulsion, failure of consideration, incapacity); The restitutionary remedy — the gain's return (the enrichment measured), not the loss's compensation (the damages/restitution divide: unjust enrichment restores the defendant's gain; damages compensate the claimant's loss). The defence's catalogue: change of position (the defendant's innocent spending of the enrichment); the bona fide purchase; the limitation bar; the illegality's ex turpi bar (the illegal- bargain's non-restitution within the in pari delicto limits — Unit 6's interface). The doctrinal note: unjust enrichment as the generating principle of the quasi contracts (the classical list's modern unification) — the civilian restitutions-and-the-common-law unjust- enrichment's convergence; the Code's restitution provisions as the Nepali codification's face. Exam Focus Long questions: "What is a quasi contract? Explain the doctrine of unjust enrichment with the Nepali provisions." / "Explain quantum meruit and its rules with illustrations." Short questions:…