Law in Equity and Trust regarding Charities Essay

Law in Equity and Trust regarding Charities - Essay ExampleIt has a specific legal content the Charities Act 1993 describes a charity asAny institution, corporate or not, which is established for appealing purposes and is subject to the control of the High Court in the sour of the Courts jurisdiction with respect to charities. s96(1)This tautologous explanation gets us no further, other than to observe that it is the Courts who determine what charitable purposes means according to current legislation and that an organisation cannot be registered as a charity by the Charities Commission if it has been set up under the laws of a foreign country which for these purposes include Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the telephone circuit Islands. Overall this description in itself is unsatisfactory since it promotes uncertainty, and where there is uncertainty in the law there will be litigation.Whilst on the face of it the definition of what a charity is should be found in the Charities Act, the Courts actually refer to the Charitable Uses Act 16011 to determine the definition of a charity, despite the fact that this legislation has been repealed. The Courts pass the spirit and intention of the 1601 Act and the definition of charity has been developed through statutory interpretation and case law precedent arising predominantly from disputes over wills, taxation status and/or challenges against decisions make by the Attorney General on behalf of the Charities Commission. Examining the case law suggests that organizations will be recognized as charitable if they have the following characteristicsThe trust moldiness have a charitable characterThe trust mustiness be exclusively charitableThe trust must (on balance) be beneficialThe trust must benefit the publicThe trust must not distribute a profitCharitable CharacterLord MacNaughten in Income Tax Special Purposes Commisoners v Pemsel 1891 identified four divisions of charitable purposes namely 1) The relief of poverty2) The advancement of education3) The advancement of religion and 4) Other purposes beneficial to the community.Exclusively Charitable tout ensemble the purposes to which a trust may use its assets must be charitable. The classic case was Maurice v Bishop of Durham 1805. That particular trust failed since it was expressed to be for charitable or benevolent purposes, and not everything that is benevolent is recognized as charitable in English law.BeneficialThere is a presumption that charities which fall under the poverty, education or religious objects be beneficial. In the past the Courts generally sought to find an analogy between the purpose of the proposed charity and the 1601 Act Williams Trustees v IRC 1947. More late the cases have also sought analogies with decided cases. For example in Scottish Burial Reform & Cremation Society v Glasgow Corporation 1968 it was held that the promotion of low exist cadaver disposal (cremation) as it was of benefit to the community, within the spirit and intendment of the Charitable Uses Act 1601 and analogous to other charities that had themselves been deemed to be analogous to charities in that list.Public BenefitCharities are distinguished from Private Purpose Trusts - which benefit named individuals - and Discretionary Trusts, which