Anglo-american Law Research Evolution Of Trust System

The trust derived from Anglo-American system. Early to Feudal Age, the trusthad been one of the methods to transfer property. Nowadays, the trust, as a branch ofcommercial law, has become more and more attractive to various countries in theworld. China brought in the trust system as well, so trust companies emerged intoour economic life. However, to mimic others’ system blindly without understandingof the essence will delay the development of the trust. Therefore, the paper doesresearch on the attributes of trust on the contractarian basis in the hope that it will bebeneficial to the development of the trust in China.Firstly, the paper expounds the history of the trust, explaining the changes fromoriginal means of conveyance to asset management tool, from non-professionalperson to institutional trustee, and so forth. Then the paper announces the refutationagainst the opinion opposed to the contractarian account of the trust, justifyingcontractarian basis of trust pointing at the.character of trust, as well as the differentdefinition given by the common law and equity.Then it develops the intrinsic functional similarities between contract and trustdeeply and comes to the conclusion that both of them are the results of autonomyand consensus. Moreover, the trust law is default law and the minimalist in the trustprocess so that it facilitates problem solving and increase deal efficiency. Besides,regarding trust as a special type of contract can solidify the non-jury act, fixing theproblem in the second part which tells the conflicts towards trust of the common lawand equity. Absolutely, if two parties have disagreement on the trust law, they canalter it by the parties’ consensual terms in the trust instrument. And the trustee haveto perform the duty of loyalty and prudence, in order to solve innate interestconflicts, which demonstrates that trustee’s fiduciary also stems from the bindingforce of contract. Moreover, under the circumstances of trustee insolvencybeneficiaries’ interest should be given priority because trusts are performed for the beneficiaries’ benefit. So separating trustee’s property from trust asset can protectthe beneficiaries.Next, through comparing the practice of non-trust legal system andAnglo-American system, this paper draws the conclusion that legal system withouttrust tradition achieves the function of trust mostly by means of contract, which hasbeen acknowledged by Hague Convention. Meanwhile, by analysing Chinese trustlaw with a few clauses and deficits in legislative technology, however, it is clear thatthey both contain loads of similar terms, which indicates the attitude of lawmakers.Thus, we can say that the trust and the contract correspond to each other andgradually converge, as a result, function complementarily.