Abstract The increasing globalisation of private wealth has established the trust as a cornerstone of cross-border estate planning. Yet Spanish law in 2026 continues to resist meaningful engagement with this legal institution. This resistance does not stem from ignorance in any literal sense. Rather than confronting trusts directly, Spanish law has developed a strategy of practical denial. The trust is neither expressly invalidated nor properly analysed; instead, it is systematically ignored and neutralised through administrative reconstruction and judicial circumvention. This article asks how a modern legal system can simultaneously understand the trust’s functions while systematically refusing to engage with it as a legal institution.
Juan Carlos Olarra (2026) studied this question.