Research On The Nature And Effect Of Fiduciary Relationship

Fiduciary relationship is one of the most elusive concepts in Anglo-American law. Applicable in a variety of contexts, such as trustee-beneficiary, agent-principal, corporate director/officer-corporation, and partner-partnership, a beneficiary entrusts a fiduciary with control and management of an asset. Few scholars in China have examined fiduciary legal principles separately from these specific contexts. The purpose of this Article is to inquire into the nature of fiduciary relationship and rules that govern them, including the origin of fiduciary law, the rationales behind the creation of fiduciary duties, the remedies for violations of these duties and the methods by which courts fashion such remedies.This thesis is divided into four Chapters.Chapter One is a general introduction of fiduciary relationship. On the basis of equity history, the essay illustrates the whole legal system of fiduciary which includes the concept, the formation and the basic construction for its operation.Chapter Two mainly discusses the nature of fiduciary relationship by means of economical and social methodology. Much effort is devoted to study the theoretical basis that can justify Equity in imposing a fiduciary obligation on trustees. Contractual or mandatory source is the key issue involved. Besides the thesis introduces different types of fiduciary relationship by clarify the theory.Chapter Three demonstrates the main content of fiduciary relationship by making a comparative study of the two legal systems. It covers the duty of trustee and the remedy of beneficiary.Chapter Four tries to combine fiduciary obligation with the Chinese trust law, in order to make some suggestive discussion on how to transplant the general fiduciary concept into Chinese trust law remedy system to some extent. By incorporating a concept of fiduciary of trustees, the trust law paves the way for a wider interpretation of the specific rules of fiduciary conduct.The Conclusion of this thesis emphasizes the main content of fiduciary relationship and the writer's opinion in the feasibility of transplanting the fiduciary concept to a civil law jurisdiction.Nonetheless, a fiduciary doctrine which displays equity's techniques while also remaining compatible with the Chinese civilian legal tradition is not impossible. As a result, the main materials are constituted by theories, literatures, cases and histories that come from not only Chinese legal system but also other foreign legal systems. The Methodology of this paper is listed as below: (1) Case study Method; (2) Comparative Method; (3) Historical Method.