A Farewell to Classical Trust Law

This article analyses the progressive weakening of the classical foundations of trust law and the consequences of an expanding conception of “trust freedom”. Traditionally rooted in property law and fiduciary discipline, the trust has increasingly been reinterpreted as a flexible arrangement centred on powers and obligations rather than proprietary rights. The paper traces this shift through the rise of discretionary and “massively discretionary” trusts, the erosion of beneficiaries’ proprietary positions, and the influence of offshore trust models. It critically examines judicial developments that have enabled settlors to retain extensive control over trust assets, sometimes at the expense of legal certainty and third-party protection. While recognising that trust law has evolved irreversibly, the article argues that excessive flexibility risks undermining the trust’s conceptual coherence and calls for a principled re-engagement with its proprietary core.