信托与信托法 (Trusts and Trust Law)

This book is a translation work. The original author of this book is Norio Higuchi, then a professor at the University of Tokyo, and currently a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. As an authoritative scholar in the field of Japanese common law, the author systematically expounds the theory and practice of the Japanese trust system from the perspective of comparative common law, and points out the problems in Japanese trust law and the direction of future development. The translation of this book was published by China Law Press in China and received wide public acclaim.

China enacted a trust law in 2001. However, trusts in China are different from those in the United Kingdom and the United States, as they are mainly used in the commercial field. This is very similar to Japan. In recent years, with the rapid development of China's economy, the trust system in China has begun to receive more and more attention from the society, not only in the civil field, especially in the issue of property inheritance, but also in the development of financial investment products in the commercial field, and in the field of public trust, the trust system has been increasingly recognized and accepted by the society. However, since the Chinese trust law enacted in 2001 is rather principled and has only 54 articles, there is in fact a serious disconnect between the practice of trusts in China and the Chinese trust law, so it is a major issue for the Chinese trust law community to improve the situation and improve the Chinese trust law system. In this sense, the situation of Japanese law detailed in this book will provide an important material for the future revision of Chinese trust law, which is of great importance for the improvement of Chinese trust law.

The table of contents of this book is as follows: Chapter 1 Why Trusts, this chapter not only explains the basic structure of trusts, but also organizes in detail the characteristics of trusts from the perspective of comparing them with contracts. Chapter 2 is the rationale for adopting trusts, which focuses on the effects of trusts and the history of trusts. Chapter 3 is on the meaning of civil trusts, which focuses on the civil specific forms of trusts and the past and future of civil trusts. Chapter 4, Why Commercial Trusts, explains the four types of listed trusts and the differences between commercial and civil trusts. Chapter 5, on changes, termination and trustees, focuses on issues related to changes, termination and trustees from a U.S. law perspective. Chapter 6 deals with the fiduciary's duty of loyalty, mainly explaining the characteristics of the fiduciary's duty of loyalty in Japanese law and the specific issues. Chapter 7 deals with the fiduciary's duty of care, mainly explaining the situation in Japan in comparison with the duty of care in U.S. law from the perspective of comparative law. Chapter 8 deals with other duties of trustees, mainly explaining the duty of personal management, the duty of separate management, the duty of fairness, and the duty to provide information. Chapter 9 deals with other important arguments in Japanese trust law, mainly on issues such as purpose trusts, limited liability trusts, etc. Chapter 10 deals with the future of trusts, mainly explaining the expansion of trusts and the expansion of trust law. Chapter 11 deals with the future of trusts and trust law. The main focus is on the future development of trust law with due diligence.
 

(Written by Daming Zhu, Specially Appointed Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2022)