LAW580
Trusts
(Enman-Beech)
Prerequisite courses:
Prerequisite for:
Instructor(s): Professor Jack Enman-Beech
Course credit: 3
Method of presentation: Lecture
Teamwork: No
METHOD OF EVALUATION
Optional mid-term that will count as 1/3 of the final grade if and only if the mark is higher than on the final exam; a cumulative final exam for the remainder; both closed book (with a case list provided).
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Trusts use the flexibility of equity to extend our ability to manipulate property. Because of this power, historically won by aristocracy from the Crown, trusts have come to be used in many areas, from estate planning to family property disputes to tax avoidance to the fiduciary relationship between Crown and Indigenous peoples. Most of the course covers general rules that apply to many sorts of trust, including Alberta’s new Trustee Act: express trusts and their administration, trusts arising by law, and fiduciary obligations and the relations between Crown and Indigenous Peoples.
Though trusts law is technical, we will be guided by certain debates that structure legal argument and judicial decisions in this field:
What is equitable about trusts?
How have trusts developed historically and how are they changing now?
To what extent can trustee powers and duties be modified by agreement like a contract? What do the limits on such modifications tell us about the nature of trusts?
What is the practical role of trusts in Canada today? Who uses them to do what?
SPECIAL COMMENTS
Description updated 2026-27. Please contact the instructor for any specific questions you may have related to this particular course section.
REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY)
TBD