Rethinking the Need for Commercial Trusts in Civil Law Jurisdictions

Abstract

In this article, the need for the adoption of trusts into civilian jurisdictions has been analysed by placing a special focus on commercial trusts. It has been argued that, the trust may offer an added value for these legal systems as it is more advantageous in terms of asset management, investment and financing purposes. In the context of asset management and investment, the trust is compared with the fiduciary contract and even though both legal instruments serve the purpose of separating management and beneficial ownership; it has been concluded that the trust fulfils this function more successfully thanks to both the property dimension and the obligation dimension that are incorporated into it. In the context of traditional financing, the advantage of the trust manifests itself in case of multi-source financing – more clearly, in case of loans acquired by multiple lenders. Here, the added value of the trust is apparent with regard to the composition of common security packages, which constitutes a significant advantage from various perspectives for both borrowers and creditors.