Offering protection: on trusts and divorce in the Channel Islands

J ersey and Guernsey recently introduced legislation¹ to confirm the supremacy of local over foreign law when determining matters affecting local law trusts, their validity and the capacity of those creating them. The new legislation also confirms foreign judgments affecting local law trusts shall be enforceable only to the extent they are consistent with local law. That was an attempt to restrict the ability of foreign courts to make judgments affecting Jersey or Guernsey law trusts. Readers will recall, for instance, the decision in Minwalla ([2005] I FLR 771; later enforced in Jersey, [2005] JLR 359) where the English family court declared a Jersey law trust a sham applying English not Jersey law.

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