The Duties of Trustees in Comparative Perspective
(2016), 24 European Review of Private Law 1031-1052
18 Pages Posted: 26 May 2016 Last revised: 20 Jan 2017
Date Written: May 25, 2015
Abstract
The new Czech Civil Code includes a trust that was inspired in part by the trust of Quebec law. In this paper, I aim to provide a comparative overview of the duties of trustees, looking at their conceptual organization and their strictness, as well as the extent to which such duties are mandatory or can be altered by private legal act. The paper begins with an overview of trustees’ duties in the common law, emphasizing those characteristics that are particular to the law of trusts, and then compares these with the civil law of Quebec. It concludes with some brief comments on the law of the Czech Republic.
Keywords: trusts, comparative law, common law, civil law, loyalty, fiduciary, duty of care, duty of prudence
JEL Classification: K00, K11, K19, K30, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation