Trusts without patrimony

Abstract In a world awash with academic articles on the compatibility of trusts with civil law systems, the author lends his experience as an English solicitor with a Swiss background to shed some light on the interaction between the civil law concept of patrimony and the trust mechanism, focusing on the practical implications for trustees. The title of this article is a play on Gretton’s seminal article “Trusts without Equity”, which attempted to reconcile the common law idea of trusts with the civilian concept of “patrimony”. While that analysis can be very useful to anchor the trust concept in the civil law world, this article warns about the risks of applying the patrimony analogy to English law trusts, a problem compounded by the casual use of the word “patrimony” in the French and Spanish versions of the Hague Trusts Convention. Trustees wishing to insulate themselves from risk should fully understand trusts without equity, as well as trusts without patrimony.