What is the relationship between contract and fiduciary obligations? In this paper I aim to show that they are distinct juridical concepts. However, I will also explain what I understand to be the best understanding of the relationship between these two different concepts. They are distinct but...

Trust drafting practices have changed dramatically in recent decades. A range of considerations has led to an increase in the dispositive discretions held by trustees. In some cases, the trustees' dispositive discretions effectively govern the whole trust structure, leading to what the author...

Will-substitutes are legal techniques that allow the disposition of property on death outside of the deceased's estate. Such techniques, by reducing the assets in the estate, have the potential to harm the interests of creditors of the estate. This paper aims to identify some of the ways in...

In 1944, the House of Lords held that outside of the field of charitable bequests, a testator cannot delegate the power to select who will benefit from his estate. This holding has never been called into question by English appellate courts, and has been followed in many Commonwealth...

The new Czech Civil Code includes a trust that was inspired in part by the trust of Quebec law. In this paper, I aim to provide a comparative overview of the duties of trustees, looking at their conceptual organization and their strictness, as well as the extent to which such duties are...

This book examines the law governing asset management in a wide range of commercial contexts across 15 jurisdictions of the European Union. The study includes the basic features of the available legal institutions (for example, whether they provide bankruptcy protection or allow free choice of...

Norms prohibiting conflicts of interest apply in private fiduciary relationships and also to many public office holders. Whether or not such relationships are founded on trust, such norms can cultivate trust towards those holding governance authority, whether in interpersonal, civic or political...

Canadian law sometimes allows gain-based remedies for certain wrongful acts. There is a strong suggestion that gain-based remedies are available in the common law provinces for torts and perhaps breaches of contract, but the courts have been hesitant. Common law provinces have also been willing...

It has become an orthodoxy in some quarters that fiduciary duties are only proscriptive, forbidding certain actions, and never prescriptive, requiring positive action. I argue that this is a misunderstanding. The argument begins by attempting to explain how this orthodoxy arose, and then by...

This paper explores the ways in which Canadian legal orders address the tension between freedom of testation and the claims of the family of the deceased.The province of Quebec has a civilian law of succession, while the common law governs in the other provinces and in the territories. Under...