Welcome to this edition of the Trust Quarterly Review (TQR).

As part of the continuing 30th birthday celebrations of STEP, we start off this issue with our retrospective look at 30 years of developments in trust law in a range of jurisdictions: an overview of case law and statutory innovation in Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Israel, Malaysia, Switzerland and the US.

Following on from the Swiss section of the retrospective, David Wallace Wilson TEP gives more detail on the history of Swiss trust law and an analysis of the upcoming substantive trust law. This is a real innovation, albeit in a jurisdiction that is well acquainted with trusts – a new legal institution offering the same core features as an English trust, while respecting core principles of Swiss domestic law.

Chris Thorpe TEP follows with an overview of the law of implied trusts. This is a notoriously complex and controversial area. The case law that describes the circumstances in which a court might give effect to or recognise trusts where they have not expressly been created is challenging and continues to develop. The focus of the law tends to be on identifying relevant factual factors that support the recognition of constructive and resulting trusts. The actual form of the equity employed in these cases, and the taxation consequences of finding an implied trust, tend not to attract such focus. The article sets out an overview of the underlying principles and the tax consequences that can follow.

Recent years have featured a raft of highly visible developments relating to economic substance. Dharshi Wijetunga TEP, Elinor Boote TEP and Chloe Garcia TEP discuss some of the common issues in relation to the application of economic substance rules so far as they apply to private trust companies. Given the increasingly widespread use of private trust companies, having a clear understanding of the existing rules – and their likely future evolution – is increasingly important.

Finally, Paul Beckett TEP reviews Beneficial Ownership Registers: The STEP Handbook for Advisers, edited by Paolo Panico TEP: a timely new resource against the rapidly evolving web of international regimes.

The co-publisher of the TQR is The Association of Corporate Trustees (TACT), the UK-based body with 50 or so full members, which for many years published its separate periodical before uniting this with the TQR. We therefore mark with sorrow the passing of Bill Stephenson, who succeeded Roy Payne as TACT’s Chief Executive until himself retiring in 2015, to be followed by Scott Clayton TEP, the current Chief Executive. Bill’s main career had been with Lloyds and his experience of the crossover of banking and trusteeship proved a valuable contribution to the ongoing development of professional trustee practice. We salute his memory.