The taught modules offered on the LLM programme vary from year to year. Please check the full list of taught modules list for details of modules running in specific academic years. We make every effort to ensure that every module will be offered, but modules are subject to change and cancellation. You are therefore advised to check this site regularly for further updates throughout the year preceding entry to the LLM programme.
INTERNATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL TRUSTS LAW (LAWSG134)
Credit value: 30 credits (12 ECTS) |
Module Convenor:
Professor James Penner |
| Intercollegiate teaching: No |
| Teaching Method: 20 x two-hour seminars |
| Who may enrol: LLM students, SIL students, Other UCL Masters students |
| Prerequisites: None |
| Barred module combinations: None |
| Core module for specialism: International Banking and Finance Law, International Commercial Law |
| Assessment |
| Practice Assessment: 3 hour ‘take-home’ Moodle exam in December |
| Assessment method for Masters students: Unseen eight-hour take-home written examination |
| Assessment method for SIL students: Unseen four-hour take-home written examination |
| Module Overview |
Module summary
This module is a study of the use of the trust in the modern world of private estate planning and commercial transactions. Part I of the module covers the modern law of private trusts, that is, the use of the trust in managing family wealth, with particular emphasis on developments in the ‘offshore’ world’. Part II of the module covers the use of the trust in a variety of commercial transactions. Part III of the module is an exploration of the conceptual nature of the trust and the way in which it does or does not form a coherent part of the law of property, or the law of obligations, or both.
By the end of the module, students should: (a) have a solid understanding of the way that the trust device is used to manage family wealth and the various functions it may perform, such as to avoid probate or protect assets; (b) have a solid grasp of the issues that arise in respect of controlling trustee discretions, the rights of the objects of trusts, and the questions surrounding purpose trusts; (c) a solid understanding of the use of trusts in several important kinds of commercial transaction, and the differences that may exist between the rights, powers, and duties of trustees of commercial trusts as opposed to their family trust counterparts; and finally, (d) a sophisticated appreciation of the conceptual questions raised by the express trust and the different ways in which those questions have been addressed.
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Module syllabus
This overview of topics is indicative only; particular topics may change from year to year:
The Modern Law of Private Trusts: Epress Trusts and Powers; Control of trustee discretions; Frauds on powers; Irreducible Core Elements of an Express Trust; The Offshore World and its Trusts; Purpose Trusts; Protectors; Letters of Wishes; Nomineeship and ‘sham’ dispositions; Asset Protection Trusts; Trust in the Conflict of Laws
Commercial Trusts: Bond Trusts and Trustees; The Trust in Asset Securitisation and Intermediated Securities; Quistclose Trusts; Trusts and Commercial Equity; Pension Trustees
The Nature of the Trust: Trusts and Funds; Trusts and Equity; Civilian Conceptions of the Trust
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Recommended materials
There is no textbook suitable for the entire module, but J E Penner, The Law of Trusts 7th Ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) provides suitable background reading for many course topics. |
Preliminary reading
If you have not studied trusts before, or if you have but feel a bit rusty on the subject, the first three chapters of J E Penner, The Law of Trusts 7th Ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2010) are recommended.
For those interested in an historical introduction to the trust, D Waters, ‘The Trust: Continual Evolution of a Centuries-Old Idea’ [2007] Journal of International Trust and Corporate Planning 207 (available online from Lexis), is quite detailed, but readable.
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Other information
Summative assessment will be by way of a Moodle 8-hour ‘take home’ examination |
| Prizes for this module: Pump Court Tax Chambers Prize |
