Express Trust: The Dark Horse of the Liberal Property Regime

Abstract

Trust sceptics are correct to revolt against the increasing abuses of the trust. But they are wrong to deem it beyond redemption. In this chapter, written for the “Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Trusts”, we develop a charitable interpretation of trust doctrine and of the legacy of the trust that offers a happy raison d’être around which it can, and should, be reconstructed. The trust, we argue, plays an indispensable role in a system of liberal (that is: autonomy-enhancing) property law. Pushing it to live up to this (implicit) promise offers an exciting reformist agenda in which many of its weeds are properly cleared.