Le Making Of The Guernsey Trust

Originally published in Private Client Practitioner Guernsey Supplement, December 2011

Carey Olsen's Michael McAuley examines the origins of trust law in the Channel Islands and the recent Hutcheson case and explains there is more to Guernsey trust law than the simple adoption of English trust law. He suggests, in a mixed jurisdiction such as Guernsey, where much of the private law derives from both the English and continental legal traditions, only so much of the bounty of English trust law has been, and should be, received as appropriate to the legal tradition of the island.

A canny Scot, George Gretton, has noted that there is a tendency to assume that the trust must have come from England. To trace it from anywhere else, he has said, seems as implausible as to suggest that golf originated in Italy.