This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module, building on knowledge and understanding of certain concepts and principles from Equity & Trusts, will explore trusts in further detail and examine new contexts in which they operate. Students will be introduced to a number of theoretical frameworks through which to understand and critically evaluate the role, function and concepts of equity and trusts historically and in contemporary society. These will be studied through a range of case studies and a range of different topics, including: trusts and associations; secured equitable interests; pension trusts; family wealth planning; asset-partitioning and securitisation; trusts in the offshore world; and international trusts and trust-like institutions.
Total study hours: 150
Contact hours: 20
Private study hours: 130
All single and joint honours undergraduate law programmes.
Main assessment methods
The module will be assessed by 50% Coursework and 50% Exam as follows:
• 50% written essay 3,000 words; and
• 50% 2-hour examination.
Reassessment methods
The module will be reassessed by like-for-like reassessment of failed individual component(s) of assessment. The reassessment will test all learning outcomes.
• M. Chesterman, Charities, Trusts and Social Welfare (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979)
• S. Degeling and J. Edelman (eds) Equity in Commercial Law (Sydney: Law Book co, 2005)
• J. Garton (ed), Moffat's Trusts Law: Texts and Materials (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 6th ed, 2015)
• B. Harrington, Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent (London: Harvard University Press, 2016)
• D. Hayton (ed.), The International Trust (Bristol: Jordans, 3rd ed, 2011)
• G. Ingham, Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity, 2008)
• M. W. Lau, The Economic Structure of Trusts: Towards a Property-based Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)
• R. Nobles, Pensions, Employment and the Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)
• A.J. Oakley (ed.), Trends in Contemporary Trust Law (Oxford: OUP, 1996)
• L. Smith, The Worlds of Trust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• C. Stebbings, The Private Trustee in Victorian England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• S. Worthington, Proprietary Interests in Commercial Transactions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of trusts in socio-economic context.
2. Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the different views on the nature of the trust.
3. Critically analyse trust as a juridical relation and institution in contemporary contexts.
4. Show an appreciation of the limits of the trust concept.
5. Demonstrate a comparative understanding of trust and trust-like institutions.
6. Demonstrate a critical awareness of historical and contemporary theoretical and policy problems in trusts.
7. Display an appreciation of the contribution of critical methods to the understanding of law in modern society.
8. Critically analyse and evaluate the trust industry's impact on contemporary trusts law and practice.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1. Present relevant knowledge and understanding in the form of reasoned argument through written assessment.
2. Identify and evaluate legal and policy problems according to their political and legal context.
3. Demonstrate further research from a variety of sources informing a sustained and detailed argument.
4. Summarise detailed historical and conceptual material, recognising different positions that arise in the literature surveyed.
5. Display an appreciation of the legal forms that arise and operate within complex historical and political conditions.
6. Demonstrate an awareness of the economic, political and/or social implications of legal forms and remedies.
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.
