Trusts

Trusts on the University of Cambridge Law Tripos (Part II). The body of principles that supplements the common law — above all the trust, the most important contribution of English law to private-law thinking.

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The nature of equity and the trust

Equity supplies disciplined conscience; the trust converts that discipline into enduring proprietary administration.

38 min

The three certainties

Certainty marks the boundary between enforceable equitable obligation and imperfect moral aspiration.

34 min

Formalities and secret trusts

Equity’s formal demands are evidential, protective, and sometimes defeated by conscience.

39 min

Constitution of trusts

Constitution marks the boundary between effective trusts and merely intended benefactions.

36 min

Resulting trusts

Resulting trusts police beneficial ownership where intention, formality, and failure of purpose diverge.

43 min

Constructive trusts — common intention and the family home

Common intention constructive trusts translate domestic contributions into proprietary shares, but uneasily.

38 min

Proprietary estoppel

Equity’s most flexible response to detrimental reliance on informal assurances about property.

35 min

Charitable trusts

Charitable status turns private wealth into public obligation, but only through disciplined legal categories.

43 min

Non-charitable purpose trusts

Purpose trusts test the limits of private ordering, enforceability, and equitable obligation.

31 min

Trustees' duties — loyalty, care, investment

Trustee duties are a discipline of disinterested administration, not a generalised morality of fairness.

44 min

Trustees' powers and the beneficiary principle

Powers enlarge managerial freedom, but the beneficiary principle preserves equity’s insistence on accountability.

38 min

Variation of trusts

Variation tests the boundary between settlor autonomy, beneficial ownership, and judicial paternalism.

36 min

Breach of trust and equitable compensation

Equitable compensation restores the trust fund, but only through properly characterised equitable causation.

38 min

Tracing and knowing receipt

Tracing supplies proprietary persistence; knowing receipt tests when receipt becomes equitable liability.

39 min

Dishonest assistance

Dishonest assistance fixes personal liability on outsiders who dishonestly participate in trustees’ wrongdoing.

38 min

Fiduciary relationships outside trust

Fiduciary law polices disloyal advantage where trust concepts travel beyond trusteeship.

38 min