Trusts and Choice of Law Rules in Taiwan

臺灣的信託與法律選擇規範

臺灣在其一般性的規範中承認信託已有25年之久。然而卻沒有適用於信託關係之具體選法規則。在日益全球化的世界中，這是一個令人遺憾的狀況，蓋跨境信託爭議的發生只會越來越常見。本文主張，一套關於信託的選法規則的缺乏所造成之混亂與不確定性，不僅導致臺灣法院對信託爭議事件的定性與採用的關聯事實產生歧異，並會影響到所適用的法律選擇範圍（無論可能是什麼法律）以及因違反信託之主張所生之特殊困境。這些種種的困難減損了信託作為一種獨特的法律工具的認識，並未能適當保護當事人自主以及合法期待。然而這些問題都可以透過適用海牙信託公約而輕易地解決。

Taiwan has recognised trusts in its general law for 25 years now. However, itdoes not contain specific choice of law rules applicable to trusts. This is aregrettable state of affairs in our increasingly globalised world, where incidences ofcross-border trust disputes will only be on the rise. This paper argues that the lackof a dedicated set of choice of law rules relating to trusts causes much confusion anduncertainty, not only as to how Taiwanese courts would characterise a trust disputeand the inconsistent connecting factors that would apply, but also in relation to thescope of the applicable choice of law rules (whichever they may be) and the specialdifficulties raised by a breach of trust claim. All these difficulties derogate from aproper recognition of the trust as a distinctive legal device and fail properly toprotect the autonomy and legitimate expectations of the parties. These problems can,however, be easily surmounted by adopting the Hague Trusts Convention.