Within a liberal, ‘law of things’ understanding of property, the donative trust is seen as a species of gift. Control over trust property passes from the hands of settlors to beneficiaries, from owners to owners. Trust property, like all other property, is silent and passive, its fate determined by its owners. This article questions this understanding of the trust by showing how beneath the facade of ownership, the trust inverts the relation between owner and owned, person and thing. It analyses the relation that trustees, beneficiaries and settlors have to the trust property and argues that the role of each of these parties can be shown to consist in furthering the interests of the trust property rather than their own. It claims that this protects things from their owners at the same time as it ensures these owners’ ongoing care towards the things they own. This raises questions about the trust’s status within the institution of private property, justified as it is by the human autonomy it is said to enable.

中文翻译：

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财产与物的利益：赠与信托案

在对财产的自由主义“事物法则”理解中，捐赠信托被视为一种礼物。对信托财产的控制权从委托人手中转移到受益人手中，从所有者转移到所有者。信托财产与所有其他财产一样，是沉默和被动的，其命运由其所有者决定。本文通过展示在所有权的表面之下，信托如何颠倒所有者与所有者、人与物之间的关系，质疑对信托的这种理解。它分析了受托人、受益人和委托人与信托财产之间的关系，并认为这些各方的作用都在于促进信托财产的利益，而不是他们自己的利益。它声称这可以保护物品免受其所有者的侵害，同时确保这些所有者对他们拥有的物品的持续关注。这引发了关于信托在私有财产制度中的地位的问题，据说它能够实现人类的自主权。