| Summary: | In exploring its two themes - trust and the fiduciary - the thesis pursues three aims. The overarching aim of the thesis is to consider to what extent, and in what ways, the fiduciary relationship may be said to be a relationship of trust. The pursuit of that overarching aim requires some understanding of what a relationship of trust is, of what a fiduciary relationship is, and of that which is entailed, in morality and in law, in trusting and fiduciary relationships. Hence the other two aims of the thesis. First the thesis aims to provide some analysis of trust, and responses to trust, from the moral point of view. Secondly, the thesis aims to identify a fiduciary principle, and to explain how fiduciary obligation might be justified. The thesis concludes that the fiduciary relationship may be said to have trust at its core, but only in some ways, in some cases and from certain points of view, hi reaching that conclusion, the thesis develops philosophical accounts of interpersonal trust, obligations that those who are trusted owe to those who trust them, and the cycle of trust and trustworthiness that characterises trusting relationships. The thesis also proposes a fiduciary principle, according to which a relationship is fiduciary to the extent that one person, by exercising discretion to affect the interests of another person, is able to carry out some responsibility the purpose of which is to benefit that other person. It is argued that this principle, along with the Kantian insight that it is wrongful to use people as means to one's own ends, helps to explain and justify the prophylactic rule against fiduciary conflicts of interest in a way that has not to do with trust. However, it is also argued that the fiduciary duty of loyalty may be explained and justified in light of the point of fiduciary regulation, which has to do with supporting trusting relationships and securing the autonomy of individuals.
|
|---|
