ABSTRACT
The original purpose of the 15th Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, which drafted the Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition, was decidedly low-key, namely to cope with a practical issue facing "mobile people". The textbook approach to the Convention was often related to the absence of conflict rules on trusts in civil law systems. The disruptive effects of the last sentence of article 2 are unfathomable for two reasons: first, because the Convention does not afford any guideline to decide when the reservation by the settlor of certain rights and powers is inconsistent with the existence of a trust. Second, because if a trust is to be taken to exist as long as "control" is left with the trustee, "control" is more a description of a state of fact than a legal term and in any event it fits well with the mandate and deposit structures.
