Constructive And Resulting Trusts

Constructive and resulting trusts have a long history in English law, and the law which governs them continues to develop as they are pressed into service to perform a wide variety of different functions, for example, to support the working of express trusts and other fiduciary relationships, to allocate family property rights, and to undo the consequences of commercial fraud. However, while their conceptual flexibility makes them enormously useful, it also makes them hard to understand. In the twelve essays collected in this volume, the authors shed new light on various aspects of the law governing constructive and resulting trusts, revisiting current controversies, bringing new historical material to the fore, and offering new theoretical perspectives.

Constructive trusts significantly interfere with the rights of an apparent legal owner of property. This makes it necessary for their imposition to be properly explained and justified. Unfortunately, attempts to rationalise constructive trusts as a whole-as opposed to specific doctrines or particular aspects of constructive trusts-have been few and far between. Rationalising Constructive Trusts proposes a new structure for a coherent understanding of constructive trusts. By using a combination of conceptual tools, it provides answers to a number of crucial questions, for example: What are the ingredients of a constructive trust claim? What are the limits of constructive trusts? How can we rationalise the imposition of constructive trusts in particular situations? Why do judges exercise varying degrees of remedial discretion in different doctrines? From a wider perspective, the structured understanding helps us to appreciate the precise ambit and role of express, constructive, and resulting trusts.

Concerned with "rationalizing the rules" (Preface p. v) of constructive trusts, this reappraisal of the English law of trusts discounts two major existing theses regarding the rules (first, that, based on the North American experience, they should be considered as instruments of restitution; and second, that they are disorganized) and advances Elias' new thesis that "the rules should be regarded as instruments for the rational furtherance of three good aims: (1) making disponors abide by their dispositions...(2) making those who gain through loss to others give the gains up to those others...(3) making those who inflict losses on others repair those losses..." (Preface p. v).

Robert Chambers has written a much-needed, detailed examination of the resulting trust which will be invaluable to all barristers and academics working in the areas of equity and trusts, restitution and the law of property.

This edition of a book previously in the Modern Legal Studies series, has been greatly expanded for use by practitioners dealing with cases involving constructive trusts. Case law since the last edition has made the subject an important one. The first practitioner text on this fast developing aspect of trusts law. Previous edition regularly judicially cited in Australia and New Zealand, and recently in England. Includes a discussion of Commonwealth authorities.

This volume in the 'Core Text Series' covers the law of trusts, explaining from first principles what 'trusts' is about and providing the student with an understanding of the law and the important academic controversies surrounding it.