The Fate Of Testamentary Trusts Under German Law

Abstraction and system is a major feature of German legislation,but in the field of trust it is obviously an exception,German law does not systematically stipulate any provisions of the trust,and the trust under German law does not follow the Anglo-American trust law.However,this does not mean Germany does not have the presence of trust.This paper attempts to proceed from the characteristics of the trust and compare it with the German civil law theory to analyze the conflict between them,and try to explain why Germany did not follow the Anglo-American trust.Civil law system gives Germany a basis of separation of real rights and creditor's right,which is also the core of the German Civil Code.The convenience which is led by the superb legislative skills of the German Civil Code is also a factor that cannot be ignored.Because of the flexibility of the German Civil Code,the trust disputes can be applied in Germany civil law or other rules of the relevant laws.The conversion has achieved good results in inter vivos trust.However,in the area of the testamentary trust,the conversion and its own development is really tough due to the strict inheritance tax.Therefore,with economic development in Germany and the further process of European integration,it is definitely a challenge for German that cannot escape.Especially in 2015,the succession of European rules had changed,which will bring some alternates for Germany testamentary trust.But the fate of the testamentary trust is still unknown in Germany.The article divides into four parts:The first part describes the basic characteristics of the British trust,as well as the German civil law theory.And these basic characteristics are contradictory to the frame of Germany law system.The second part describes the conversion of the British Trust in Germany.The conversion of inter vivos trust turned out to be a success,but the testamentary trust was failed.The third part describes that Germany rejects the trust by levying high personal inheritance taxes and low corporate inheritance taxes,but at the same time,the huge gap between rich and poor and heavy taxes in the country makes the German people try to use trust to solve these problems.The fourth part describes the judicial application of the German testamentary trust internally and externally.And the application in Germany has three different periods,but the fate of the German testamentary trust is still unknown.