Bringing Proceedings Against Trustees Of Australian Charitable Trusts: The Standing Of Objects

Abstract

To facilitate the invocation of the court's jurisdiction over the enforcement of charitable trusts, Australian law adopts a flexible approach to issues of standing in the charitable trust setting. The flexible approach is manifested in different forms in different Australian states and territories. This article explores the application of such a flexible approach through the lens of charitable trust objects. With reference to each Australian jurisdiction's statute, it examines the entitlement of charitable trust objects to bring proceedings against defaulting charity trustees and how the courts understand the role of charitable trust objects in supervising trustees' performance of duties. This article also explores the implications the analysis of charitable trust objects has for understanding the Australian beneficiary principle. It shows that the standing rules for discretionary and charitable trust objects can be doctrinally coherent if one acknowledges that the doctrinal basis for the court's intervention is to secure the due administration of a trust.