In the concluding chapter, we take stock of the legal developments that are likely to shape the implementation and further development of liability rules and process in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We argue that the developments in relation to state obligations of due diligence, the widening scope of compensable damages and the potential for more inclusive rights of standing, as well as rights for states to take response measures in areas beyond national jurisdiction, provides a strengthened foundation for a more robust system of state responsibility for environmental harm in areas beyond national jurisdiction. In recognizing that the approaches to civil liability in areas beyond national jurisdiction remain underdeveloped, we examine the central challenges that remain, as well as some modest pathways towards stronger legal accountability for environmental harm in the global commons.

Many trusts are established specifically to facilitate investment activity. Many managed investment schemes and most superannuation funds, for instance, employ the legal architecture of the trust. Parties may also create specialised trust structures that are not open to the public in order to arrange their investment affairs. The trust is a convenient device to enable a collection of investor monies under the management control of a party with experience and skills in the business of investing. The need for a trustee to invest trust assets can arise in other circumstances. The most obvious of these is where the trust is expected to exist for some time and has assets that are not specifically nominated in the trust instrument as assets that must be held by the trustee. In this situation, a trustee is likely to be subject to a duty, implied from the circumstances of the trust, to invest unallocated assets. This chapter examines the rules that apply to the investment of trust funds. It takes the statutory regime as its starting point but also illustrates the interplay between the statutory and general law rules that apply in different contexts.