What is Equity and Trusts Law?
Equity can be defined as OF – equité – fair, even.
1. The separate body of law, developed in the Court of Chancery, which supplements, corrects, and controls the rules of common law.
2. A right recognised by a court of equity.
Trust (Equity)
A device by which one person holds property for the benefit of another person. A trust imposes a personal equitable obligation upon a person (trustee) to deal with property for the benefit of another person or class of persons (beneficiary) or for the advancement of certain purposes, private or charitable. There must be sufficient certainty of intention, object, and subject matter.
The modern trust arose from the medieval 'use’, obtaining its nature from the simultaneous holding of equitable (or beneficial) and legal interests in property. There are said to be three necessary elements of a trust: a trustee; the trust fund or trust property; and a beneficiary or object, particularly if the trust is for a charitable purpose...(Encyclopaedic Australian Legal Dictionary, Lexis Advance)
Using Halsbury's Laws of Australia (Lexis Advance) the following topic areas are covered:-