Trust Law in Macao: An Organizational Law Account

Abstract

Drawing on the experiences of its East Asian forerunners, Macao’s Legislative Assembly introduced the Trust Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao Trust Law) on 3 November 2022, with the dual aim of encouraging the public’s use of trusts during asset transactions and regulating the conducting of trust businesses in Macao. As a newly enacted law, it is hardly surprising that there is a current lack of scholarly treatises examining its structure and provisions. This article is the first English-language analysis of the Macao Trust Law from an organisational law perspective. It has two parts. The first part explores how organisational laws’ internal administration and asset partitioning rules are manifested in the context of Macao trusts and identifies the problems associated with their observance. The second part discusses the implications of this organisational law analysis, proposing ways to address the problems identified in the Macao Trust Law and explaining the rationale behind these proposals.

Keywords: Macao trust law; organisational law; internal administration; asset partitioning