Graham Virgo: We know what the core requirements
for establishing a charitable trust are.
We need to show that one of the recognized charitable purposes exists,
and that the charity is for the public, and is beneficial.
One of the key issues relating to the identification of benefit is
whether the charity's purpose can be considered to be a political purpose.
Because it has long been recognized that a political purpose
is not consistent with what a charity should be for.
Now this raises all sorts of questions of policy
that you're going to need to think through quite carefully.
Why do we say that a political purpose is incompatible with a charitable purpose?
And more fundamentally, what is a political purpose?
It certainly involves party political purposes, but it is much wider than that,
and it has long been recognized that a charity which exists
to change the law should not be regarded as a charity.
In other words, the benefits of being a charity are not available if the charity-
the trust-exists to change the law.
Now why might that be the case?
In part it might be because there are tax benefits, for example, for being a charity,
and it's not appropriate to bestow those tax benefits
on an entity which exist to change the law.
Judges have also said, at times, that a political purpose is incompatible with a charity,
where that entity operates to ensure a change in the law,
because the judge is not in a position
to determine whether the change in the law is beneficial or not.
Now, what is going to be important as you work through this material is to think quite hard
whether those arguments are convincing.
And if they’re not, should it follow that it is legitimate
for a charity to exist even though it has a purpose to change the law?
Some jurisdictions have recognized
that political purposes are compatible with charitable purposes.
The key question here is whether this should also be the case in English law?