Interference with Performance of a Fiduciary Obligation

Abstract

The enactment of the Trust Law, 1979, not only introduced the institution of trusts into Israeli law with complete and final validity, but it also focussed current legal attention on the primary duty derived from the function of the trustee, i.e. the duty to act loyally. The word “trust” denotes the institution, but it is also an expression of the nature of the relationship between trustee and beneficiary: a personal relationship based on mutual trust. The obligation to act loyally, which will henceforth be called the “fiduciary obligation” arose from the English institution of trusts, but was not confined by its bounds. It spread to a variety of relationships to which English law applied “fortified” norms, more demanding and more strict than those prevailing in the regular course of commerce.