Mark Pawlowski asks whether political activities should be charitable ‘Should not the line be drawn between objects which are essentially political and objects which are of general social significance?’Charities are becoming more political in character and less concerned with symptomatic relief. The concept of charity today is one of public campaigning, lobbying and self-promotion. But …
Continue reading "Charities: Widening the legal framework"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | June 2015 #150The Human Dignity Trust (HDT) is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 16 December 2010. It was established to support people whose human rights were violated by the criminalisation of private, adult, consensual homosexual conduct, including by assisting them and their lawyers to bring litigation in domestic courts and tribunals, or against a state before international courts and tribunals. Its objects were to promote and protect human rights throughout the world, including the rights to human dignity and to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the ...
Simrun Seehra analyses the impact of The Human Dignity Trust v The Charity Commission for England and Wales [2013] ‘The litigation supported and conducted by the trust was not an attempt to change the law, but rather it was directed at ensuring the interpretation and enforcement of superior constitutional rights.’ The Charity Commission’s decision to …
Continue reading "Charities: What is a charity?"
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In his concluding article David Schmitz discusses the legal position for charitable trustees faced with a gagging clause ‘If a charity was to bind itself thus, its trustees would necessarily and improperly be fettering the powers which they possess for the advancement of the purposes of the charity, and would be committing the charity to …
Continue reading "Charities: Power to voice?"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2012 #121A Notice of Reference dated 27 January 2011 was made by Her Majesty’s Attorney General following concerns expressed by the Charity Commission that the Charities Act 2006 (2006 Act) had cast doubt on the continued charitable status of certain charitable trusts. The trusts affected were trusts for the relief of poverty where the class of potential beneficiaries were defined by a family relationship, employment or former employment status or membership of an unincorporated association. There were 11 parties and 19 interveners. Other than the Charity Commission, each of the pa...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2012 #116The Independent Schools Council (ISC) brought an application for judicial review, seeking an order to quash certain parts of guidance issued by the Charity Commission (CC) comprising the ‘Charities and Public Benefit – the Charity Commission’s General Guidance on Public Benefit’ (issued January 2008) and ‘Public Benefit and Fee Charging’ and ‘The Advancement of Education for the Public Benefit’ (both issued in December 2008). ISC alleged that the guidance included errors of law in respect of the public benefit requirement as applied to ...
