Theories of the Trust and What They Might Mean for Beneficiary Rights to Information

Abstract

The trust is a mental construct used to explain a type of guardianship of property. There are traditionally two ways to understand the trust - one sees the trust as creating proprietary rights and duties; the other as establishing personal rights and duties as between the trustee and beneficiary. This articles considers the evidence for both and argues that it is important to clarify the conceptual basis of the trust because it can affect the substance of trusts law. This point is illustrated by the various answers that have been given to the particular question of whether beneficiaries have a right to access trust information.