ABSTRACT
Research on trusts law has traditionally focused on doctrinal analysis, while comparatively less attention has been paid to the normative foundations of the subject. This raises an important question: how should trusts law be understood? Existing scholarship has begun to explore this question through the lens of personal autonomy. Much of this work, however, has concentrated either on controversial uses of the trust or on specific doctrinal contexts in which autonomy is especially prominent. The broader question of how trusts law operates as a legal institution that both facilitates and regulates autonomy among settlors, trustees, beneficiaries, and third parties involved in trust arrangements remains underexplored. This article addresses that question by examining how far, and in what ways, autonomy theory can explain the existence, operation, and development of trust rules. In its final section, the article applies this perspective to two contentious issues, demonstrating how an autonomy-based analysis can clarify both the normative structure of trusts law and the direction of its future development.
Jing, Jeremy Hui, Self-Determination, Relational Justice and Trusts Law (July 1, 2022), (2026) University of Toronto Law Journal (forthcoming).
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