header-logo header-logo

Charitable confusion

25 June 2021 / Roderick Ramage
Issue: 7938 / Categories: Features , Charities
printer mail-detail
51881
Roderick Ramage shows how parliamentary draftsmen sowed confusion by trying to avoid ambiguity
  • Charities have charity trustees and might also have trustees.

The legal structure of a typical unincorporated club or association is quite simple. The founders agree, probably informally, to form it and adopt a set of rules, which is the contract between the members. The association is not and cannot be a party to the contract, because it is not a legal person. The members elect some of their number to be a committee to manage it and, as (again) the association is not a legal person but just a body of natural persons, they, or sometimes the committee, appoint trustees to hold its property and investments.

The members of the committee or some of them could also be the trustees, but it is not uncommon for the trustees or some of them not to be members. As a simplistic description, an association of this kind consists of three components, supporters and participators (members), doers (committee) and trustees.

The structure is

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

NLJ Career Profile: Kadie Bennett, Anthony Collins

NLJ Career Profile: Kadie Bennett, Anthony Collins

Kadie Bennett, senior associate at Anthony Collins and chair of the Resolution West Midlands Group, discusses her long-standing passion for family law and calls for unity in the profession

Osborne Clarke—Lara Burch

Osborne Clarke—Lara Burch

Firm appoints new UK senior partner for 2026

Keoghs—Louise Jackson & Katie Everson

Keoghs—Louise Jackson & Katie Everson

Healthcare and sports legal team expands in the north west

NEWS
Lawyers and users of the business and property courts are invited to share their views on disclosure, in particular the operation of PD 57AD and the use of Technology Assisted Review (TAR) and artificial intelligence (AI)
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
back-to-top-scroll