Law Commons^™

The Role Of Offshore Jurisdictions In The Development Of The International Trust, David Brownbill

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The trust is a common law invention, the product of experience over many years. But the more it is reduced to legislation, the more formalistic it becomes, and the less able it will be to respond to new situations and challenges. The quasi-code approach--and, to a much lesser extent, the targeted approach--also results in a fragmenting of the trust law. The trust has benefited immensely from the relative uniformity of most general principles throughout the Commonwealth and other common law countries. This has enabled developments, in the form of judicial pronouncements, in one country to be freely adopted in others. …

The Trust Offshore, Antony G.D. Duckworth

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

I was not present at the birth of the offshore financial centers or of their trust business, but I am told that the mother was taxation. Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but I do not doubt that taxation was the major influence. The typical settlor was a taxpayer from one of the major common law countries, and his primary motive for going offshore was tax avoidance. But there were also a few settlors from other places, some motivated by estate planning considerations (the trust allowing them to make property arrangements which could not be made at home), some by fear …

Law For Sale: Alaska And Delaware Compete For The Asset Protection Trust Market And The Wealth That Follows, Amy L. Wagenfeld

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

For years, U.S. citizens have looked to offshore jurisdictions to create trusts that protect a settlor's assets from the claims of creditors, yet allow the settlor to be named as a beneficiary. United States law and public policy have long been against the idea of allowing a person to enjoy benefits from assets that are simultaneously shielded from creditors' claims. However, despite this existing public policy, Alaska and Delaware have enacted statutes that attempt to do just that. Essentially, these statutes claim to make what used to be possible only offshore, now possible in the United States.

This Note seeks …