The Scope of Fiduciary Obligations : How Contract Informs, But Does Not Determine, the Scope of Fiduciary Obligations

This article concerns one aspect of the interrelationship between law and equity. The scope of the fiduciary obligations owed by trustees, partners and other fiduciaries whose status is sourced in contract depends substantially, but not wholly, on what that contract has provided. That in large measure is a consequence of the fact that those heightened obligations depend on the status given to the fiduciary by virtue of the contract and the fact that they may be discharged by informed consent. But contract is not decisive, for the parties' conduct, as well as their promises, can add to and subtract from the extent to which they are subject to heightened fiduciary obligations. This article seeks to explain how those mechanisms operate