Zionist Settlers and the English Private Trust in Mandate Palestine

30(3) Law and History Review 813-864 (2012)

38 Pages Posted: 21 Jan 2011 Last revised: 16 Jan 2017

See all articles by Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow

Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow

Peter A. Allard School of Law, the University of British Columbia

Date Written: January 20, 2011

Abstract

This essay is the first sustained description, based on archival materials, of the use Zionist settlers in British Mandate-era Palestine made of the English private trust and trust company, and Mandate authorities' reactions to that use. An early, ill-fated attempt to create a family trust of land in the English style produced an ambiguous decision by the Supreme Court of Palestine, which could be construed to mean that the private trust was no part of Palestinian law. I show how in the shadow of that decision, the Zionist settler population of Palestine made significant use of the trust for a variety of purposes. The story thus provides a particularly sharp example of a colonial population adopting more of the colonizer's own law than that colonizer was willing to have it use. Still more use was made of the trust company; it was a key instrument in encouraging Jewish immigration to, settlement of and investment in Palestine. Thanks to a particularly sophisticated international trust structure set up in 1933, more than 50,000 German Jews escaped the Nazi noose with at least some of their property intact. Their arrival in Palestine largely created its middle class. The essay thus contributes to both the socio-legal history of British colonial law, the history of Mandate Palestine, and that of the worldwide dissemination and uses of the trust and trust company during the early 20th Century.

Keywords: Trust, Trusts, Mandate, Palestine, Mandate Palestine, British Empire, Colonialism, Zionism, Emirgration, Currency Control, Exchange Control, Immigration, Nazi, Nazis, Holocaust, Banking, Land Purchase, Land Law, Commercial Law, Equity, Law and Colonialism, Construction, Legal Nationalism

JEL Classification: H30, H31, H32, K11, N10, N15, N25, N35, N10, N20, N 30, N40, O10, O14, O15, O16, O17, O53

Suggested Citation

Hofri-Winogradow, Adam S., Zionist Settlers and the English Private Trust in Mandate Palestine (January 20, 2011). 30(3) Law and History Review 813-864 (2012), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1743941

Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow (Contact Author)

Peter A. Allard School of Law, the University of British Columbia ( email )

1822 East Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://allard.ubc.ca/about-us/our-people/adam-s-hofri-winogradow

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
142
Abstract Views
1,237
Rank
368,861
PlumX Metrics