Trust-owned companies and the irreducible core of the trust

The recent Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal case of Zhang Hong Li v DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd upheld the effectiveness of anti-Bartlett clauses. This gives rise to the question of whether a trust-corporate structure, coupled with a well-drafted anti-Bartlett clause, leaves any room for trust obligations. Through the lens of the law on trust-owned companies, this article thus seeks to reconceptualise the ‘irreducible core of trust obligations’. It argues that the irreducible core means the minimum duties which are necessary to preserve the integrity of the trust concept. It draws a distinction between core and mandatory duties, in that the ‘bells and whistles’ one adds in specific contexts may be mandatory duties reflecting appropriate policies, instead of core duties necessary for a trust to exist. It accordingly considers the proper content of the irreducible core, as distinguished from other mandatory duties.

Prudence in practice: Bartlett and beyond

In Zhang Hong Li v DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd and Ors the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong referred to trustee's ‘residual obligation’ to act in respect of an underlying company in circumstances where no reasonable trustee would refrain from doing so. This has attracted some criticism. We suggest that such criticism is narrowly drawn; if one looks more widely one can find support for the notion of a residual obligation. We suggest it is in keeping with developments in New Zealand's Trustee Act 2019 and question the hitherto narrow approach to the irreducible core. The balance between shareholder and directors that might have been thought appropriate 40 years ago, when Bartlett was decided, might be less appropriate today; we refer to increased activism amongst institutional investors. We touch on the private equity model as well. We conclude that trustees should, absent some good reason, seek board representation.

Of Grasshoppers, Caterpillars, and Beans: A Historical Perspective on Hmong Messianism

This paper considers Hmong messianism in Asia and beyond from a historical perspective, arguing that its thematic repetition of themes and ideas requires a new understanding of subjectivity at the intersections of the psychological with the social and political. Hmong messianic movements have adopted a variety of forms ranging from the more indigenous to the more explicitly Christian. While the attempt is not to seek a particularist ‘ethnographic-historical’ understanding of these recurrent movements, nevertheless the contexts of colonialisation, mass migration and marginal social status are suggested as providing the essential background for such an understanding. Several different theoretical approaches to understanding such movements are considered, with some attention to major theorists of structure and agency. It is argued that ultimately messianic movements can be appreciated in terms of a kind of ‘anticipatory consciousness’, and are enabled to challenge current social orders because they are motivated by a particular notion of time, which combines a medieval and revolutionary notion of simultaneity with one of historical progression which is, however, not gradualist. A ‘central irreducible core’ of ritual beliefs and actions among the Hmong emerges from this consideration of historical movements, which may demand a reconsideration of older and largely abandoned notions of cultural structure.

O PUDOR COMO PASTOR DO SER: REFLEXÕES SOBRE A SEXUALIDADE EM CHAVE PERSONALÍSTICA

Partindo de uma reflexão fenomenológica em chave personalística, o autor propõe a leitura do pudor em duas direções fundamentais. Por um lado, o pudor intervém em situações de “crise”, revelando um lado obscuro do eros. Por outro lado, ele não se limita a ser um “freio” ou um “sinal de perigo”, antes revela o outro e o si mesmo como não redutíveis a puro-objeto-de prazer. Assim, retira do ser-outro o véu da objetivação à qual é reduzido quem é objeto de um olhar despudorado. Nesse sentido, o autor propõe, contra a concepção banal e redutiva da sexualidade, uma resgate do pudor próprio como guardião e pastor do núcleo irredutível da pessoa e de sua dignidade.ABSTRACT: From the perspective of a phenomenological reflection in a personalista approach, the author proposes an interpretation of pudency in two fundamental directions. On the one hand, modesty intervenes in situations of “crisis”, revealing the dark side of eros. On the other hand, it is not a “brake” nor a “signal of danger”, but rather it reveals the other and the self as not limited to a purelypleasure-object. So, it takes away the veil of objectification from the other-being who was reduced to an object of a wanton stare. In this sense, against a banal and reductive conception of sexuality, the author proposes a retrieval of self prudency as a guardian and shepherd of the person’s irreducible core and dignity.

Evolution and Irreducible Complexity

The concept of inreducible complexity is central to the origins controversy. Ineducible complexity (IC) may be defined as any machine or system that requires two or more parts in order to function. Examples range from molecules to mousetraps, organelles, and organisms such as humans. This essay explores the relationship between IC and complexity, clarifying the levels of IC such as the irreducible core and its mode of function. IC has been used in a wide variety of disciplines for over a century. Objections to irreducibte complexity include co-option, the "junk DNA" theory, and the scaffolding argument. Co-option, a major argument against IC, attempts to explain how IC can be achieved through natural means by utilizing existing parts to construct a new biological machine or structure. Yet examples of IC in both the biological and non-biological wortds show that such common objections do not invalidate the concept. IC is firmly established.

But What Does it Mean? Seeking Definitional Clarity in Restorative Justice

This article examines, considers the effects of, and proposes resolutions to a number of significant tensions arising from the way the fundamental concepts of restorative justice are defined and used. The article uses as a framework two key issues. First, whether restorative justice should be defined primarily in terms of the process to be used or the outcomes to be achieved. Secondly, attention will be drawn to the lack of clarity in defining restoration. This article proposes a list of irreducible core values of restorative justice and contends that agreement about these will best advance the theoretical debate, assist the appraisal of restorative justice in practice and prioritise the restoration of victims and the fair treatment of offenders.

RECONCEPTUALISING THE EXPRESS TRUST

This article argues that the express trust should be understood as a species of obligation rather than as a means of organising the ownership of property. Two propositions seem fundamental to the traditional understanding of the trust as an aspect of property law. Firstly, in the nature of the trust, there must be a separation of legal and beneficial ownership. Secondly, there must be trust property. Neither is necessarily true. With many discretionary trusts and other recognised types of express trust it is impossible to locate the beneficial estate. Furthermore, the requirement for there to be trust property is, on closer analysis, a requirement of certainty of obligation in relation to specific subject-matter within which the trust property can be located.The article explores the implications of understanding the trust as a species of obligation. It allows all express trusts, including charitable trusts, to be explained as resting on the same fundamental concepts. The trust in the common law world may still be distinguished from contract and from the civil law forms of the trust. This new conceptualisation also illuminates what is the irreducible core content of the trust. The article concludes with a new definition of the express trust.

Toward Islamic Political Economy at the Turn of the Century

Background and Some Explanatory TermsWith the distancing of Muslim societies from the pristine tawhidi(unity of God) origins of the Qur’an ingrained in the Madinah Charter(metareligious constitution of the earliest organized Islamic state)’ as theexperience of the Prophet Muhammad during his flight to the realm ofknowledge across the sidrat al rnuntaha (the tree/region of perfect knowledge,i.e., bliss), their constitutional strengths of life and thought decayedexponentially. This marked both the intolerance and the increasing severanceof the Muslim community from the roots of Qur’anic epistemology.Neither rationalism, scholasticism, nor controlled clerical dominance(fatwas) can be the methodology to replace the otherwise unifying epistemologyof tawhidi precept in all walks of life.Unification epistemology (also termed alternatively as tawhidi epistemologyand unity precept equivalent to Qur’anic epistemology) is theworldview that establishes life, thought, and their cognitive constituents inthe fold of a universally interactiveintegrative pervasion of inter- andintrasystemic relationships. In this fold, God-Man-Universe interrelationshipsare framed according to precise principles. These principles thenground the emergence of laws that remain integral with the unifying epistemology.The emergence and convergence of all processes in this frameworkare then seen to uphold cause-effect relationships with a uniquelyirreducible and logical presence of unity.The worldview of unification epistemology is premised in thismethodical deconstruction of all processes to the irreducible core thatfoundationally unifies all relationships and that is, in turn, reflected in theself-referential conclusions of all unified systems. What else can that irreducible,unified epistemological premise be but tawhid! While the ...