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Abstract
Attorney-General of Hong Kong v Reid was decided on two mutually inconsistent doctrinal bases, either that the bribe-taker Reid was a wrongdoer who must be stripped of his gains, or that he owed a pre-existing liability to account for any unauthorized gain because he was a fiduciary. The former basis of liability applies to wrongdoers who are not fiduciaries, and the latter requires no wrongdoing. Neither basis of liability requires, in principle , proprietary liability, ie that equity imposes a constructive trust over the bribe in favour of the victim of the wrong, and indeed, the rules of tracing show that the imposition of a constructive trust is liable to fail to strip wrongdoers of their actual gains, and to lead to unfairness against the wrongdoer's other creditors.