論民事信託關係下受託人之忠實義務

The Duty of Loyalty of a Trustee in a Private Trust

在信託關係下，受託人並非信託財產實質所有人但卻有極大管理權力，造成代理問題，而受託義務係降低代理問題之有效方法，包括要求受託人應負注意義務與忠實義務。忠實義務要求受託人應以受益人之最佳利益執行信託事務，並應避免有利益衝突情事，被認為是最基本且最重要之義務，但我國信託法卻未有一般性明文，致使法律適用時產生諸多不確定。美國信託法對此已發展出相當成熟且穩定的規範模式，並將許多原則成文法化，而可為我國信託法解釋或未來修法之參考。本文擬研析美國信託法律整編第三版、統一信託法典為主，並參考學術文獻，對我國信託法提出未來立法建議，另就現行規定提出應有之解釋，使忠實義務內涵更為充實，以利信託之發展。

The agency problem exists in a trust relationship, because a trustee, as a legal owner but an equitable owner, has discretionary power of management over trust property. The fiduciary duty, including the duty of care and the duty of loyalty, can be used to effectively mitigate the agency problem to some degree. The duty of loyalty, which is deemed the most fundamental to a trust, thus requires a trustee to manage the trust in the best interest of the beneficiary and possibly avoid all conflicts of interest. However, Taiwan Trust Act has no provision clearly stating the duty of loyalty, which makes it difficult for such duty to be applied in practice. The U.S. trust law which has developed a variety of rules regulating the duty of loyalty in a comprehensive manner and many of them have been codified into a model code, can be a good source for Taiwan to consider how to explain or reform its trust law. After referring to the Restatement (Third) of Trusts, Uniform Trust Code, and a body of academic literature, this Article is expected to offer some insights into the current provisions of the Taiwan Trust Act and its future reform.