charitable trust
A trust whose purposes are regarded by the law as being charitable. Charitable trusts enjoy many advantages including exemption from many forms of taxation, the ability to claim tax paid by its donors by way of gift aid, lack of necessity for there to be human beneficiaries (see beneficiary principle), and the nonapplication of the rule against perpetual trusts.

The law relating to charitable trusts is now contained in the Charities Act 2011, Part 1 of which defines “charity”: a charitable purpose (s 2) must be within the list of purposes in section 3 and must be for the public benefit (s 5). Section 3 “describes” charitable purposes under 13 heads as: prevention of poverty; advancement of education; religion; health; citizenship and community; arts and culture; amateur sport; human rights; environmental protection; relief of those in need because of youth, age, or disability; advancement of animal welfare; and the promotion of the services. The final description (“any other purposes”) is wide enough to allow development of the definition and includes any purpose that was charitable before the Act. A charitable purpose must also be “wholly and exclusively charitable”, and there must be no possibility of funds being used for non-charitable purposes.

• RTM
• rubric
• rule against bias
• rule against double portions
• rule against inalienability
• rule against perpetual trusts
• rule against perpetuities
• rule against remoteness of future vesting
• rule in Howe v Dartmouth
• rule in Keech v Sandford
• rule in Re Hastings Bass
• rule in Re Pettit
• rule in Re Rose
• rule in Rylands v Fletcher
• rule in Saunders v Vautier
• rule in Strong v Bird
• rule in Wilkinson v Downton
• rule of law
• rules of court
• Rules of Oléron
• Rules of the Supreme Court
• running-account credit
• running days
• running with the land
• Rylands v Fletcher