Description

In the orthodox jurisprudence of the common law, the figure of the express trustee is virtually nothing at all. As the holder of the title to the assets of a trust, the trustee of course holds rights and owes obligations at common law. It also holds rights and owes obligations at common law through in, for example, the law of contract and under numerous statutes. But in recognising such rights and obligations of trustees, the common law puts no weight on the fact the trustee is a trustee: the only relevant fact is that the trustee is a person who holds rights or obligations at common law. Recent developments in the law place this orthodoxy – and its practical commercial merits – in question. This paper will examine those developments, and consider their significance for the express trust as a vital institution and instrument in common law systems and in commercial activity.

About The Speaker

Dr. Peter Turner is a University Lecturer and Fellow of St Catharine’s College in the University of Cambridge. He has served as Academic Secretary of the Faculty of Law (2014-2016) and as Director of Studies in Law in St Catharine’s College (2010-). Beginning with scholarly writing produced before and soon after his admission to practise as a solicitor in Australia – before he entered the academy in Cambridge – his work has been considered or approved by the Singapore Court of Appeal, the UK Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and by numerous courts in Australia, as well as by law reform agencies in Australia and Scotland. He is an active member of the International Advisory Committee of the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law Fourth (Property) and is the book review editor of the Cambridge Law Journal. He is an author of the internationally distinguished equity treatise, Meagher, Gummow and Lehane’s Equity: Doctrines and Remedies.