Trusts in private international law
Introduction Private international law concerns the rules about disputes between private individuals in different jurisdictions, not as between nation states. When parties have disputes within the same jurisdiction, there is no debate as to which jurisdiction will govern that dispute. In the trusts context, trust property and the trust parties (settlor, beneficiaries, trustees etc) are all often domiciled in different places. For example, in Webb v Webb [1994] QB 696, the claimant father sought an order that the defendant son, to whom he had transferred title to land in France, held it on trust for him. The question was whether the English court had jurisdiction to hear the case. It does not follow from the fact that an English court has jurisdiction to hear a case that English law will necessarily govern the parties’ dispute. It is a separate question which law the court will apply to the dispute. Determination of this question might have significant ramifications if an app...
