Hague Trusts Convention

Jonathan Harris is Professor of International Commercial Law at the University of Birmingham.

• Part 1 The creation of transnational trusts - launching the rocker: introduction; to what extent are matters of capacity and essential validity excluded from the Hague Trusts Convention?; capacity; the choice of law rule for capacity questions; the capacity of the trustee; the capacity of the beneficiary; the vesting of property in the trustee inter vivos; perpetuities and accumulations; the situs of equitable interests and dealings with subsisting equitable interests; transfers of subsisting equitable interests; sub-trusts; incompletely constituted trusts and trusts of the benefit of a covenant; testamentary trusts - administration of estates; testamentary trusts - the law applicable to succession; capacity to create a testamentary trust; essential validity and testamentary trusts; forced heirship; the potential impact of the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Succession to the Estates of Deceased Persons of 1 August 1989; testamentary powers of appointment; matrimonial property regimes; the creation of transnational trusts in offshore jurisdictions; conclusion. Part 2 The Hague Convention on the law applicable to trusts and on their recognition: evolution and application; the Convention's provisions - Article 1 functions of the Convention, Article 2 characteristics of the trust, Article 3 types of trust governed by the Convention, Article 4 exclusion of preliminary matters, the rocket-launcher and the rocket, Article 5 non-trust jurisdictions, Article 6 express of implied choice of law, Article 7 the applicable law in the absence of choice, Article 8 scope of the applicable law, Article 9 splitting the applicable law - the administration of trusts, Article 1- changing the applicable law, Article 11 the recognition of trusts, Article 12 registration of the trust, Article 13 right to refuse recognition to trusts objectively connected to non-trust states, Article 14 freedom to adopt more liberal recognition rules, Article 15 preservation of mandatory rules in related areas of law, Article 16 international mandatory rules of the forum, Article 17 exclusion of renvoi, Article 18 public policy, Article 19 exclusion of fiscal matters, Article 20 right to extend convention to other types of trust, Article 21 right to restrict recognition to trusts governed by the law of a contracting state, Article 22 time-frame of the Convention, Article 23 states consisting of several territorial units, Article 24 application of convention between territorial units of state, Article 25 relationship to other international conventions, Article 26 reservations to the Convention's scope, Article 27 accession of member states, Article 28 accession of non-member states, Article 29 application of the Convention to selected territorial units of a state, Article 30 entry into force, Article 31 denouncing the Convention, Article 32 notification process. Conclusion. Appendices. (Part Contents).

The strength of Harris's book lies in the way he applies his deep knowledge of the substantive law of trusts in his detailed treatment of the Convention...Harris's book is a much needed comprehensive treatment of the Convention, which will be of great interest to both academics and practitioners dealing with trusts in an international setting. H.L.E. Verhagen, Nijmegen ZeuP January 2006 ...a welcome addition to the private international law literature, being the first detailed analysis of the Convention published in the UK...[an] erudite and lucidly written monograph. It deserves to be widely read. Jonathan Hill, University of Bristol Trusts and Trustees May 2002 Harris' book can be useful in helping to understand the law even in those countries where the convention is not going to enter into force. This is certainly all the merit of the author having written this excellent book. the book is not only useful for English lawyers - which is rather obvious - but also for practitioners in civil law systems. Michael Traest European Review of Private Law May 2003