Constructive Trusts in South African Law: The Legacy Refused

This paper was first presented on 19 October 1996 at a joint seminar of the Scottish Law Commission and the Faculty of Law, University of Edinburgh, on the subject of constructive trusts. Although trusts are a distinctively Common Law institution, seemingly incompatible with Civilian concepts of property, trust law has been received in the mixed South African legal system. But constructive trusts have found no place in South African trust law, in the view of the author, rightly so. Much of the work performed by the constructive trust can be achieved through the law of obligations, while the acceptance of the institution can produce anomalous results in insolvency.