“美国诉米切尔案”对现代信托法的拓展

The Effect of the Case of United States v.Mitchell on the Extension of Modern Trust Law

诞生于英国中世纪土地受益制的信托法,随着17、18世纪英吉利法系的扩张,开始传播到其他英联邦成员国家,并不断丰富,日趋成熟,从土地民事信托,到金融商事信托,乃至国家治理活动中的政府信托。在现代信托法拓展过程中,其发展之里程碑(或者说标志)之一,就是20世纪70年代发生的“美国诉米切尔案”。这是一桩由美国历史遗留的森林托管问题引起的经典案例,美国联邦最高法院为此作出了两次意义深远的判决:第一次判决确立了索赔法院对印第安信托事务的管辖权;第二次判决确立了联邦政府与印第安部落间的信托关系,开辟了美国信托制度下国家信托的新样态,并对现代信托法的发展产生了重大影响。

Trust law, originating from medieval England’s trust of land ownership, has been spread to other commonwealth countries with the extension of the whole English common law system in the 17th and 18^th centuries and developed into a mature form governing various trust relationships ranging from civil land ownership trust, to financial and commercial trusts, and even to the governmental trust in state governance. A milestone in the development of modern trust law is the case of United States v. Mitchell in the 1970s, which is a classical case in connection with the trust involving the ownership of forest resources. For this case, the US Supreme Court made two far-reaching decisions: the first one confirmed the Court of Claims’ jurisdiction over trust-related activities;and the second established the trust relationship between the federal government and the Indian tribes. The second decision has reshaped the governmental trust in the framework of US trust law and substantially influenced the development of modern trust law.