Cowan v Scargill [1985] Ch 270 is an English trusts law case, concerning the scope of discretion of trustees to make investments for the benefit of their members. It held that trustees cannot ignore the financial interests of the beneficiaries.
Some of the obiter dicta in Cowan, however, have been implicitly doubted by Harries v The Church Commissioners for England,[1] which held that trustees are entitled to consider the social and moral interests of the beneficiaries where they relate to the express or implied objects of the trust. Furthermore, the Goode Report on Pension Law Reform in 1993 stated the law to be that trustees "are perfectly entitled to have a policy on ethical investment and to pursue that policy, so long as they treat the interests of the beneficiaries as paramount and the investment policy is consistent with the standards of care and prudence required by law."[2] In 2014, the Law Commission (England and Wales) commented that the case should not be seen as precluding pension trustees from taking account of environmental, social and governance factors when making investments.[3]
^[1992] 1 WLR 1241
^R Goode, The Report of the Pension Law Review Committee (1993) Cmnd 2342, 349-350
^Law Commission of England and Wales, Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries Law Com 350 paras 4.36-4.45, 6.27 "Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries - Law Commission". Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
CowanvScargill [1985] Ch 270 is an English trusts law case, concerning the scope of discretion of trustees to make investments for the benefit of their...
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