Morris, Debra --- "Public Benefit: The Long and Winding Road to Reforming the Public Benefit Test for Charity: A Worthwhile Trip or ‘Is Your Journey Really Necessary?’" [2010] ELECD 674; in McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry (eds), "Modernising Charity Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Modernising Charity Law

Editor(s): McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849802505

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Public Benefit: The Long and Winding Road to Reforming the Public Benefit Test for Charity: A Worthwhile Trip or ‘Is Your Journey Really Necessary?’

Author(s): Morris, Debra

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

4. Public benefit: the long and winding
road to reforming the public benefit
test for charity: a worthwhile trip or
`Is your journey really necessary?'1
Debra Morris

INTRODUCTION

Public benefit has always been an essential element in charities. It is this
factor that distinguishes charitable trusts from private trusts, and it is
the public benefit that is often said to justify the advantageous taxation
treatment afforded to charities.2 In England and Wales,3 for example,
the Charity Commission describes it as a kind of covenant that charities
have with society: charities bring public benefit and, in their turn, are
accorded high levels of trust and confidence and the considerable benefits
of charitable status.4 As well as significant tax advantages and certain legal
privileges, charities can access funds which others ­ even other voluntary
organisations ­ cannot; volunteers and donors give, respectively, time and
money.
The English common law tradition has provided no statutory defini-
tion of charity. The starting point was the Preamble to the Statute of
Charitable Uses 1601 (known as the Statute of Elizabeth). Though it has
been repealed,5 it has remained of significance throughout the common
law world. The Preamble set out the most typical charitable purposes of
the time, ranging from the `relief of the aged, impotent and poor people'
to the `education and preferment of orphans' and it has formed the basis
for modern judicial pronouncements on how to establish a charitable
purpose. The courts and, in England, the Charity Commission, have been
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