Understanding Trusts: A Comparative View of Property Rights in Europe

This paper explains the unique features and functions of the Trust in English law in the light of the structure and style of English Property law, in contrast with Continental European legal systems, where the absence of the Trust is linked with the special principles and dogmatic structures of Property rights, as developed by the Pandektenwissenschaft from original Roman law sources, and from the old droit coutumier of the French North. The division of the powers and benefits of ownership that lies at the foundation of the Trust is shown to be historically and dogmatically untenable in Civil law systems. Moreover, the different historical evolution of sources of liability in Civil law and Common law systems is shown to have prevented institutions functionally similar to that of the Trust from emerging on Continental European soil.