RELATING TO PROPERTY AND TRUSTS - NOW IN ITS LONG AWAITED SECOND EDITION An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers If you’re a practitioner involved in any way with matters relating to trusts, you probably already have the first edition (published 1994) of this monumental and authoritative work in your library. However, this is the second edition, new from the Oxford University Press. Completely up to date, it incorporates the changes that have occurred in the momentous fourteen years since the first edition made its first very well received appearance. The author, Geraint Thomas, points out that one of the more startling developments over this time period is the vast increase in the volume of case law now available to the practitioners partly due to new technology. It is worth noting that within this volume of some 900 pages, there is an eighty-two page table of cases alone and 10 pages of statutes and statutory instruments! And it’s also partly due, for example, to the proliferation of pension scheme trusts and other specialist legal products and services which are often trust related. And, as Thomas says, ‘there is now more raw material to select from, synthesize and explain,’ as well as the fact that ‘doctrines and principles of the law of powers have been given a new lease of life’. This new edition reflects the fact that the constant and continuing changes in the law that have taken place in this complex area. It does appear that some topics that were once of great significance have become less so, while others, formerly of less significance, have become more so now- such is the way with the topic! Also, certain ancient principles have been revived and applied to modern circumstances and conditions. Some chapters in this volume are therefore entirely new, says the author, while others have been amended in some manner, all of which reflects the primary aim of this edition which is to update the original one. The result is a formidable, very readable and lucid work of scholarship which, in our view, is easy to use. There’s a useful index at the back and a detailed table of contents which guides you logically through the subject matter. Chapter 1, for example introduces both the definitions and classifications dealt with in the book, including a very interesting examination of the concept of ‘power’ in its diverse forms. Subsequent chapters deal with such areas as the creation of powers… the certainty of objects… the exercise of powers… the excessive execution of a power… the fraudulent exercise of a power… the judicial view of the exercise of powers… and of course much more besides. This is to cite only a few examples of what is contained in this richly resourced work. As the first edition has been cited regularly in the courts of England and Wales as well as the major Commonwealth jurisdictions, we have no doubt that -- if you’re a practitioner in this field -- that you should add this long awaited second edition to your library.