This timely handbook details how all charities in Ireland can ensure that they are legally compliant with all aspects of charities law. This complex area is clearly and concisely explained by two leading experts in the charity law field. As well as fully outlining the legislation, including detailed coverage of the Charities Act 2009, this handbook considers the life cycle of a charity in Ireland: from its creation and registration to its governance and reporting obligations right through to its relations with other charities, at home or abroad, and the demise or dissolution of a charity. Examining the role of the charity trustee in both corporate and unincorporated charities, this book details the key relationships with relevant statutory agencies from the Charities Regulator through to Revenue and the Companies Registration Office. Setting out for the first time the practical issues facing charities operating in Ireland, this handbook is vital for any person concerned with the regulation of charities in this jurisdiction.

This book investigates and critically evaluates the concept of public benefit within charity law in the common law world. In the course of the study the book: provides a rich account of how the concept of public benefit has developed over time in charity law jurisprudence; deepens understanding of the aspects of public benefit that remain poorly understood even today; and suggests ways in which public benefit jurisprudence might develop in an orderly and principled way so as to better address some of the core concerns of charity law and the public policy objectives that lie behind it. The book includes contributions from world leading charity law experts and jurists. Each chapter reflects on a key aspect of public benefit jurisprudence in charity law. The topics have been chosen carefully to ensure coverage of most if not all of the large unresolved questions relating to public benefit in the common law world. Each chapter is accompanied by a comment, written by an academic expert or leading practitioner. The comments complement the chapters by critically engaging with those chapters and by offering different and thought-provoking perspectives on the subject matter of the chapters. The book will be of interest to academics working in law, philosophy, economics, sociology and political science. It will also provide a valuable resource for legal practitioners and judges, government officials, especially charity regulators, and in the not-for-profit sector itself.

Charity Law & Social Policy explores contemporary law, policy and practice in a range of modern common law nations in four parts and from the perspective of how this has evolved in the UK. As progenitor of a system bequeathed to its colonies and after centuries of leadership in developing the core principles, policies and precedents that subsequently shaped its development, the contribution of England & Wales, the originating jurisdiction, is first described and analysed in detail in Parts 1 and 2. These broadly sketch the parameters and role of ‘charity’ – seen as a mix of public and private interests - then address the law’s role in protecting, policing, adjusting and supporting charity. This provides the critical dimensions for the comparative analysis of experience in the common law nations that constitutes the main part of the book. Part 3, in 5 chapters, provides an analysis of the legal functions as they apply to type of need and thereby give effect to social policy in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America. Part 4 concludes with three chapters that appraise political influence as a factor in aligning charity law with social policy to create a facilitative environment for appropriate charitable activity. Attention is given to the central role of the regulator, contemporary charity law frameworks and definitional boundaries.

This work provides an analytical and comparative analysis of the development of charity law, as well as providing a critical commentary on a number of contemporary changes within the charity law field across a range of common law jurisdictions. The book follows earlier studies which cover a similar, and traditional, jurisdictional spread, but which are now dated. It further considers in detail charity law issues within Hong Kong and Singapore, about which there has been historically more limited charity law discussion. The area is growing in terms of practical legal and academic interest.