This book presents a hotly debated issue concerning the ownership of
trust property in China. The book describes various conventional
interpretations of Chinese Trust Law submitted by legal scholars and
compares diverse approaches regarding the ownership of trust property
provided by jurisdictions globally. The book does not directly answer
the question "Who is the owner of trust property in China?" Instead,
using a social capital perspective, it develops a more practical
perspective to explain why Chinese trust business has grown rapidly even
in lack of legal certainty regarding the location of ownership of trust
property. The book also further predicts under what conditions is the
time ripe to clarify the location of the ownership of trust property in
China.
By employing those sociological concepts often used to depict and
analyze society, this book outlines the structure of the Chinese trust
business and related social relations in different stages, i.e., the
current rapid
development stage, and the possible transitional stage in the near
future. The focus is on how the social network structure affects the
behavior of actors (such as the settlor, the trustee, and the
beneficiaries, and/or their potential candidates) within the relevant
section of Chinese society.
The book provides readers with an intensive analysis of the impacts of
historical, cultural, and social elements on the legislation and
development of trust law in China. It will appeal both to lawyers
interested in the Chinese trust business and to comparative law
researchers and social scientists.
