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Semester 2

Trusts and Succession (LAWS10219)

Subject

Law

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 Law courses at grade B or above, including courses equivalent to Succession & Trust Law (LAWS08130) and Property Law Ordinary (LAWS08133). We will only consider University/College level courses. This course is only open to visiting students who are nominated to study with us on a Law exchange agreement. Exchange students outside of Law and study abroad students are not eligible to enrol on this course before teaching begins, with no exceptions, and spaces cannot be guaranteed to those students at any time. **Please see Additional Restrictions**

Course Summary

The course has two main parts. The first considers the core policy and doctrines governing the intergenerational transfer of wealth in mixed, common law and civil law systems. The second considers advanced topics in the administration and organisation of trusts, as they have developed in Scotland and in the onshore and offshore jurisdictions of the Anglo-common law world. Students will become familiar with the range of legal structures used to transfer and manage wealth, both on death and inter vivos. Their knowledge will be enriched by the comparative study of trust and succession systems and the different rationales that shape their development.

Course Description

1. The law of intestacy in historical and comparative perspective, including the prevailing models and their underpinning rationale; 2. The intentional inter-generational transfer of wealth by the use of wills and other instruments, including will-substitutes and potential tensions they give rise to; 3. The scope of private autonomy and its restrictions, including the competing interests of family succession and freedom of disposition; 4. Power structures in inheritance, including the protection of vulnerable testators and vulnerable heirs and beneficiaries; 5. A comparison between common law and civil law approaches to the administration and distribution of wealth on death, whether by transfer direct to an heir or through an executor; 6. Trusts as asset partitioning structures in Scots and Anglo-common law systems; 7. Anglo-common law analyses of property-holding under trusts; 8. Trustees duties in investment of assets and delegation of trustee functions; 9. Exclusion of trustees liability for breach of trust; 10. Beneficiaries rights to information about the governance of the trust.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

This course cannot be taken alongside Succession & Trust Law (LAWS08130) or Property Law Ordinary (LAWS08133). **All 3rd year Law courses are ONLY open to visiting students nominated on an exchange agreement within the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific exchange). Exchange students outside of Law, and independent study abroad students, are not eligible to enrol in these courses, with no exceptions.** Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the CAHSS Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the Law School directly to request additional spaces. If there is sufficient space for other visiting students to enrol at the start of the semester (which cannot be guaranteed at all), visiting students must meet the pre-requisites listed above.

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