Bahrain: Central Bank of Bahrain succeeds Bahrain Monetary Agency

The Central Bank of Bahrain came into existence on 7 Septemberand has taken over all the tasks previously conducted by theBahrain Monetary Agency (‘BMA’). The Central Bankof Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law (‘CBB Law’)issued by Decree No. 64 of 2006 gives the CBB strong operationalindependence and a wider range of enforcement powers. The CBBLaw has also replaced the Insurance Law (Legislative DecreeNo. 17     

Exceeding powers of appointment: Re the Toland Trust, the Pennywise Trust and the Sequential Trust [2005] JRC 142

The general intention of the Toland Trust, a discretionary settlementgoverned by the law of Jersey, was expressed in a letter ofwishes that the immediate family of the settlor should benefit.A general power of appointment was given to the trustees. Considerable capital gains     

The golden age

Somewhere in history, there was a golden age of trusts. Whenthat was, is difficult to say. Perhaps it was when Lord Nottingham,in the 17th century, brought order to Chancery cases and, bymaking equity a proper body of legal precedent, overcame theopinions then that Chancery decisions varied according to thelength of the Chancellor's foot. These principles still givethe English type of trust its particular details and characteristics.Or perhaps the idea of a golden age is a myth; as with mostgolden ages, nostalgia is     

Wills and Probate, Which? Essential Guides: A complete guide to making a will and administering an estate * Paul Elmhirst

This book, published by Which? explains the law relating towills and the administration of estates (probate). It is ideal     

Parker's Modern Wills Precedents, 5th edn * By Michael Waterworth MA (Cantab)

Trusts set up by will, will trusts, are governed by similarconsiderations to those affecting inter vivos trusts. Frequentlyin trust textbooks the authors do not tell us that will trustshave some significant difference from inter vivos trusts. Thelatter may be set up quite informally by a mere declarationof intention and the transfer of the trust property to the trustees.But will trusts can only come about if the law relating to makinga valid will has been complied with. This tends to get overlookedunder the shadow of possible inheritance tax     

Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts in the Channel Islands, James Kessler QC and Paul Matthams

This is the latest in the series of book based upon James Kessler'swell-known book on the simplification of trust drafting. Theco-author of this publication is Paul Matthams, Advocate ofthe Royal Court of     

Taxation and trusts

It really is necessary that people, resident and taxable inEngland, should die earlier. Long life is an anti-social activity.It denies the government taxation to which it feels it is trulydue. Early deaths, particularly amongst the wealthy, are necessary:it is the patriotic duty of those with wealth to shuffle offtheir mortal coil as soon as possible and to allow the governmentas much inheritance tax as possible. Ghoulish though this mayseem, it is clearly a view of the current British Government. Why do we say this? The Paymaster General, in explaining thenew rules for inheritance tax treatment of settlements, justifiedher policy in the term ‘Because trusts do not die,     

Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments, 4th Edn * Adrian Briggs and Peter Rees, Eds

This fourth edition, three years after the previous edition,overall is approximately 100 pages longer. The cause of thisgrowth is not hard to find; the blame is fairly laid at thedoor of the EU where its Conventions have been revised and re-revisedtime and time again and now the Regulation of the EU's Councilwhich has resulted in a variety of new absurdities having tobe placed on top of the national jurisdictional rules internalto the United Kingdom (and, presumably, to those of each otherMember States of the EU). This was the state of affairs at thetime of the third edition, leading the authors to state in theirintroductory chapter that litigators live, in the language ofthe Chinese curse, in interesting times. It is now three years later and in the fourth edition we haveanother layer     

Oh, Court of Equity!

Oh! Court of Equity, misnamed, where doubt Leads many in; whencefew or none, get out;

These woeful opening lines of a poem‘Court of Chancery’ by a Reginald James Blewittin 1827, was the way he took up the tomahawk, as he termed itin his preface, against a dire national enemy. In practice,in Lincoln's Inn, he found the great delay and ruinous expensesof a Chancery suit had become proverbial. After giving up practicehe found the tranquillity of the park at Fontainebleau moreconducive to overcoming his previous anguished existence withhis verse satirizing the tedium of proceedings, its expenseand the follies and conceits of former colleagues. Former colleaguesare named in