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Synge, Mary --- "Public benefit post-Pemsel" [2018] ELECD 1356; in Harding, Matthew (ed), "Research Handbook on Not-For-Profit Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 363

Book Title: Research Handbook on Not-For-Profit Law

Editor(s): Harding, Matthew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785369988

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Public benefit post-Pemsel

Author(s): Synge, Mary

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

This chapter considers the public benefit test that is a central feature of charity law. It argues that common law jurisdictions once held a shared view about the role of the public benefit requirement. It then outlines the various ways in which that consensus has been fragmented and lost because of legislative and other reforms in different parts of the world. In particular there has been considerable divergence in relation to the requirement, and practice, of ‘presuming’ or ‘assuming’ the public benefit of purposes of one or another type, and this divergence has generated much confusion and controversy. The chapter raises the question: does charity law need a public benefit requirement at all, or could all the work of such a requirement be done more clearly and efficiently by the ‘heads’ of charity coupled with precise and targeted disqualifying rules?