Equity and Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Equity and Trusts - Essay Example If it is developed in the country where monarchy system is followed, then monks would be required to live in the property. Therefore it may be concluded that it is not necessary that the idea of Trust Law will always find its origin in the English system only1. In this paper different aspects of the contemporary trust law will be studied and the importance of the beneficiary in this law would be discussed. The Origin of the trust law The historical origin of the trust can be found in the so called crusades in which the English noblemen fought and were away from England for years. The noblemen were significant land-owners in England under the feudal land system. The problem arose as to who would be using the land and in what way when the noble men were out of the country. As a consequence the rule of equity recognized that the land left unused by the noblemen, who were unable to exercise their legal rights on the other, will be used by other men. So the equity recognized an arrangemen t where the right of the noblemen will be retained. The nobleman was regarded as the person who will have the ultimate beneficial right and the person who will be benefiting from this arrangement is known as beneficiary. In the absence of the nobleman, the Stewart who accepts the charge of the land is entitled to raise taxes on the land and so on. So in such an arrangement the nobleman passes their legal rights of the land to the trusted person referred as â€Å"trustee† but the ultimate beneficial right of the property remains with the nobleman who serves as the â€Å"beneficiary†. The core duty of the trustee is to stick to the terms and condition of the trust2.Therefore the â€Å"beneficiary† is referred to have the â€Å"equitable interest â€Å"in the property3. A major traditional practitioner’s Lewin gave the following description of trust. He defined trust as â€Å"a duty or aggregated accumulation of obligations that rest upon the person descr ibed as trustee. The responsibility bestowed on him is due to the property held by him under his control. The property is compelled by the court in the equitable jurisdiction to administer in the manner lawfully prescribed by the trust instrument or where there be no specific provision written or oral, or to the extent of such provision is invalid or lacking in accordance with equitable principle†4. Problem with the Law In California, people presented petitions and pleaded for justice to the Chancellor (the keeper of the King’s conscience) stating that the property given to the trustee for their benefit was mis-applied. So the court of Chancery built up two ideas: first, â€Å"the obligation of the feoffee to uses or trustee to hold the property for the benefit of the cestui que use or beneficiary†5 and second, â€Å"the right of the beneficiary to obtain the use of the property†6. Thus this notion backed that the trustee’s obligation with regard to the property was correlative to the beneficiaries’ right in it7. A major traditional practitioner Lewin argued that the consequence is such that the benefits and the advantages accrued will not go to the trustee and in turn will go to the person called â€Å"cestui que† that is the beneficiary. The trustee may be the beneficiary in the case where the advantage accrued will be in his favor to the extent of his beneficial interest8. Importance of Beneficiary The central tension in the Trust Law is regarding the