X-Nico

Cy-près doctrine in English law

The Byzantine Empire also used a system similar to cy-près when dealing with piae causae, charitable corporations, whereby if the corporation fell its possessions were to be transferred to the Papal treasury and spent on a purpose as close as possible to that of the original corporation.

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Initial failure cases, however, require not just a decision on whether the purpose has failed, but also on whether the funds should be subject to cy-près or returned to the estate in a resulting trust.

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The doctrine was initially an element of ecclesiastical law, coming from the Norman French cy près comme possible (as close as possible), but similar and possibly ancestral provisions have been found in Roman law, both in the Corpus Juris Civilis and later Byzantine law.

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The Corpus Juris Civilis makes mention of a process by which money given to celebrate a person's life in a way that violated the law would instead be redirected, and used on a purpose within the law.

see also