ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the nature of the rights that the beneficiary acquires. The most important point to understand about the rights of beneficiaries in express trusts is that the settlor is able to fashion almost any form of right for the beneficiary, provided that it complies with the beneficiary principle considered immediately. The beneficiary has always been a species of volunteer who is given rights in equity because there is found to be sufficient intention on the part of the settlor to create a trust in her favour. The settlor could make herself another beneficiary so that she would not consent to an alteration of the power, or make herself the sole trustee with a power to withhold the property from the beneficiary. The beneficiary principle was founded such that the courts would be able to enforce the trust through the claims brought before them by beneficiaries.
