ABSTRACT
In common law trusts, the trustee holds ‘legal title’ and the beneficiary holds a ‘beneficial interest’. This legal structure has traditionally been considered unique to common law, resulting from the ‘separation of common law and equity’. However, recent foundational theoretical research has clarified that the beneficiary’s ‘beneficial interest’ does not compete with the trustee’s ‘legal title’; rather, the former is complementary to the latter. Based on these premises, could a similar legal structure be adopted for trusts within civil law jurisdictions? Furthermore, is the concept of ‘special patrimony’, used to introduce trusts in civil and mixed law jurisdictions, truly indispensable for the civil law trust? Against this backdrop of critical enquiry, this paper reviews the development of foundational theory in Japanese trust law to date and explores its potential reconstruction.
Watanabe, Hiroyuki, The Fundamental Theory of Japanese Trust Law : The Legal Structure of Civil Law Trusts (March 23, 2026).
Leave a Reply