Everything in this area flows from one structural problem: a trust with no beneficiary has no one to enforce it. The chapter begins with the beneficiary principle and the two routes by which a purpose trust may nonetheless stand, then examines the anomalous trusts of imperfect obligation, the rule against inalienability that confines them to the common law perpetuity period, and how the courts authorise a willing trustee while residuary beneficiaries act as indirect enforcers. It then turns to trusts expressed as purposes but construed as benefiting ascertainable individuals, and to the resulting trusts that arise when a purpose is exhausted and surplus funds remain. It closes with the boundary against charity: why political purposes cannot be charitable, and how far ancillary or non-charitable elements can be tolerated within a charitable trust.
