An Economic Theory of Fiduciary Law

An Economic Theory of Fiduciary Law
Author: Robert H. Sitkoff
Publisher:
Total Pages: 14
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

This chapter restates the economic theory of fiduciary law, making several fresh contributions. First, it elaborates on earlier work by clarifying the agency problem that is at the core of all fiduciary relationships. In consequence of this common economic structure, there is a common doctrinal structure that cuts across the application of fiduciary principles in different contexts. However, within this common structure, the particulars of fiduciary obligation vary in accordance with the particulars of the agency problem in the fiduciary relationship at issue. This point explains the purported elusiveness of fiduciary doctrine. It also explains why courts apply fiduciary law both categorically, such as to trustees and (legal) agents, as well as ad hoc to relationships involving a position of trust and confidence that gives rise to an agency problem.Second, this chapter identifies a functional distinction between primary and subsidiary fiduciary rules. In all fiduciary relationships we find general duties of loyalty and care, typically phrased as standards, which proscribe conflicts of interest and prescribe an objective standard of care. But we also find specific subsidiary fiduciary duties, often phrased as rules, that elaborate on the application of loyalty and care to commonly recurring circumstances in the particular form of fiduciary relationship. Together, the general primary duties of loyalty and care and the specific subsidiary rules provide for governance by a mix of rules and standards that offers the benefits of both while mitigating their respective weaknesses. Finally, this chapter revisits the puzzle of why fiduciary law includes mandatory rules that cannot be waived in a relationship deemed fiduciary. Committed economic contractarians, such as Easterbrook and Fischel, have had difficulty in explaining why the parties to a fiduciary relationship do not have complete freedom of contract. The answer is that the mandatory core of fiduciary law serves a cautionary and protective function within the fiduciary relationship as well as an external categorization function that clarifies rights for third parties. The existence of a mandatory fiduciary core is thus reconcilable with an economic theory of fiduciary law.

The Economic Structure of Fiduciary Law

The Economic Structure of Fiduciary Law
Author: Robert H. Sitkoff
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre: Trusts and trustees
ISBN:

"Abstract: This essay revisits the economic theory of fiduciary law. Nearly two decades have passed since the publication of the seminal economic analyses of fiduciary law by Cooter and Freedman (1991), and by Easterbrook and Fischel (1993), which together have come to underpin the prevailing economic, contractarian model of fiduciary law. The economic theory of agency that motivates those papers has come to permeate the literature on law and legal institutions generally. The law-and-economics movement has matured further, developing new tools and refining its understanding of previously applied concepts. The purpose of this essay is to restatethe economic theory of fiduciary law in an updated and accessible synthesis"--John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business web site.

The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law

The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law
Author: Evan J. Criddle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 912
Release: 2019-04-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0190634111

The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law provides a comprehensive overview of critical topics in fiduciary law and theory through chapters authored by leading scholars. The Handbook opens with surveys of the many fields of law in which fiduciary duties arise, including agency law, trust law, corporate law, pension law, bankruptcy law, family law, employment law, legal representation, health care, and international law. Drawing on these surveys, the Handbook offers a synthetic analysis of fiduciary law's key concepts and principles. Chapters in the Handbook explore the defining features of fiduciary relationships, clarify the distinctive fiduciary duties that arise in these relationships, and identify the remedies available for breach of fiduciary duties. The volume also provides numerous comparative perspectives on fiduciary law from eminent legal historians and from scholars with deep expertise in a diverse array of the world's legal systems. Finally, the Handbook lays the groundwork for future research on fiduciary law and theory by highlighting cross-cutting themes, identifying persistent theoretical and practical challenges, and exploring how the field could be enriched through empirical analysis and interdisciplinary insights from economics, philosophy, and psychology. Unparalleled in its breadth and depth of coverage, The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law represents an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and students in this essential field of law.

Philosophical Foundations of Fiduciary Law

Philosophical Foundations of Fiduciary Law
Author: Andrew S. Gold
Publisher:
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2014
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198701721

Fiduciary law is one of the most important areas of law, governing a wide range of relationships that affect people in their daily lives. These new and innovative essays explore the foundations of fiduciary relationships and the duties of loyalty fiduciaries owe to their beneficiaries.

Fiduciary Law

Fiduciary Law
Author: Tamar Frankel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2011
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019539156X

In Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel examines the structure, principles, themes, and objectives of fiduciary law. Fiduciaries, which include corporate managers, money managers, lawyers, and physicians among others, are entrusted with money or power. Frankel explains how fiduciary law is designed to offer protection from abuse of this method of safekeeping. She deals with fiduciaries in general, and identifies situations in which fiduciary law falls short of offering protection. Frankel analyzes fiduciary debates, and argues that greater preventive measures are required. She offers guidelines for determining the boundaries and substance of fiduciary law, and discusses how failure to enforce fiduciary law can contribute to failing financial and economic systems. Frankel offers ideas and explanations for the courts, regulators, and legislatures, as well as the fiduciaries and entrustors. She argues for strong legal protection against abuse of entrustment as a means of encouraging fiduciary services in society. Fiduciary Law can help lawyers and policy makers designing the future law and the systems that it protects.

Fiduciaries and Trust

Fiduciaries and Trust
Author: Paul B. Miller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2020-04-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 110848042X

Explores the interactions of fiduciary law and personal and political trust in private, public and international law.

Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law

Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law
Author: D. Gordon Smith
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 471
Release:
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 1784714836

The Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law offers specially commissioned chapters written by leading scholars and covers a wide range of important topics in fiduciary law. Topical contributions discuss: various fiduciary relationships; the duty of loyalty and other fiduciary obligations; fiduciary remedies; the role of equity; the role of trust; international and comparative perspectives; and public fiduciary law. This Research Handbook will be of interest to readers concerned with both theory and practice, as it incorporates significant new insights and developments in the field.

Essays Toward a Theory of Fiduciary Law

Essays Toward a Theory of Fiduciary Law
Author: Paul Baron Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2008
Genre: Trusts and trustees
ISBN: 9780494398968

Fiduciary liability is conventionally understood as premised upon the fiduciary relationship---the establishment of a fiduciary relationship gives rise to fiduciary duties, violation of which renders the fiduciary liable to the beneficiary. Implicit in the conventional view are two assumptions: the first is that the fiduciary relationship is a distinctive kind of legal relationship, and the second that certain of its distinctive qualities suffice to explain and justify fiduciary obligation. The conventional position has persisted for centuries despite the fact that these assumptions remain unjustified. Reams of case law and commentary have failed to yield a clear conception of the fiduciary relationship capable of securing its claim to distinctiveness. Likewise, the existence of a nexus between fiduciary obligation and the fiduciary relationship is largely taken as an article of faith. In recent years, the conventional position has been subject to challenge. Some have suggested that fiduciary obligation is justified directly on the basis of extrinsic moral, economic or policy goals (e.g., protecting trust, promoting economic efficiency). Others have argued that fiduciary obligation is ultimately contractual in nature, and may be explained and justified accordingly. In the end, both instrumentalist and contractualist theories of fiduciary obligation prove unconvincing. Nevertheless, a basic challenge remains valid: the assumptions implicit in the conventional position must be argued for. This thesis addresses that challenge. It seeks to vindicate the conventional position by securing the assumptions upon which it is based. To that end, I develop an account of the fiduciary relationship that articulates its distinctive qualities and shows how certain among them suffice to explain and justify fiduciary obligation. The resulting theory of fiduciary liability draws strength from the fact that it is built upon institutional practice and resonant with dominant private law theory.

Fiduciary Government

Fiduciary Government
Author: Evan J. Criddle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 677
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108680011

The idea that the state is a fiduciary to its citizens has a long pedigree - ultimately reaching back to the ancient Greeks, and including Hobbes and Locke among its proponents. Public fiduciary theory is now experiencing a resurgence, with applications that range from international law, to insider trading by members of Congress, to election law and gerrymandering. This book is the first of its kind: a collection of chapters by leading writers on public fiduciary subject areas. The authors develop new accounts of how fiduciary principles apply to representation; to officials and judges; to problems of legitimacy and political obligation; to positive rights; to the state itself; and to the history of ideas. The resulting volume should be of great interest to political theorists and public law scholars, to private fiduciary law scholars, and to students seeking an introduction to this new and increasingly relevant area of study.

The Foundations of Anglo-American Corporate Fiduciary Law

The Foundations of Anglo-American Corporate Fiduciary Law
Author: David Kershaw
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 549
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108651135

This book explores the foundations and evolution of modern corporate fiduciary law in the United States and the United Kingdom. Today US and UK fiduciary law provide very different approaches to the regulation of directorial behaviour. However, as the book shows, the law in both jurisdictions borrowed from the same sources in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English fiduciary and commercial law. The book identifies the shared legal foundations and authorities and explores the drivers of corporate fiduciary law's contemporary divergence. In so doing it challenges the prevailing accounts of corporate legal change and stability in the US and the UK.