信托制度產生的歷史分析

信托產生的最初目的在於規避土地的封建負擔，最初不為普通法所承認和保護，是衡平法賦予了受益權強制執行力。可是，代表國王利益的大法官為什麼要違背國王的意志這樣做呢？學者們始終沒有回答這個問題。對此，本文提出了三個理由：第一，基督教教會是最大的受益人，如果用益得到法律承認，那麼教會可以獲得巨大的經濟利益；第二，衡平法的大法官對用益設計享有最直接的物質利益，賦予受益權強制執行力，就是給予自己的利益以法律保障；第三，大法官們作為上帝在人間的代表，必須出面制止和懲戒違背基督教教義的行為，這樣才符合“正義”和“良心”。因此，與其說衡平法院拯救了信托而信托也拯救了衡平法，毋寧說是基督教拯救了信托，而信托拯救了衡平法院。另外，本文提出了一個被現有研究所忽視的重要因素，即憲政方面的原因。由於1 2 1 5年的“大憲章”確立了國王服從法律的原則，議會權力的擴大限制了王權，國王無力制止大法官承認信托，於是信托終於得以逃出生天。

In middle age of England, people invented trusts to avoid the feudal charges and restriction imposed on the land by the lord. The Common Law treated it as normal land deal and didn’t accept and protect the rights of beneficiary. It was the Equity Law who gave the beneficiary the power of enforcement. But why the Chancellor who acted on the behalf of the King did so? People say that the Chancellor did that for justice and conscience, but such argument is weak and inconvincible. From my points of view, there are three reasons. Firstly, the Christianity was the beneficiaries of many trusts and could get enormous economic interests if the law protected the rights of beneficiary. Secondly, the Chancellor could enjoy the interests from trusts directly and to protect beneficiary’s right was to protect his own right. Lastly, the Chancellor was the representative of God and should stop and punish the behavior against the doxies of Christianity. So it is more rational to say that Christianity saves Trusts and Trusts saves Equity Law rather than Equity Law saves Trusts and Trusts saves Equity Law in turn. Otherwise, constitutionalism is another important factor that contributed to the rise of Trusts. The Magna Charta (1215) established a constitutional principle that the King must obey the law, so the King couldn’t stop the Chancellor to accept trusts. Then the system of Trusts established finally.