Unincorporated Associations in UK Law

I now turn to the possible applicability of CPR 19.6 to the defendants. The defendants include nine individuals and three groups who the claimants allege are unincorporated associations. The evidence about the existence and composition of the eleventh and twelfth defendants is unspecific. There is sufficient to persuade me that those defendants exist as groups and are part of the alleged campaign against employees of the first claimant.

That leaves the issue of vicarious liability for the elders. As summarised earlier in paragraphs 10–18, the elders had additional responsibilities to those held by ministerial servants. They were even closer and more integrated with congregational issues than were ministerial servants. They had a spiritual role and partly exercised that role, via the judicial committee, and decisions of the body consequent upon decisions of the judicial committee.

There are probably almost as many different types of unincorporated association as there are forms of human activity. This particular one was a club with 900 odd members, substantial land, buildings and other assets, and it had no doubt stood as an entity in every sense except the legal for many years. But the legal description 'unincorporated association' applies equally to any collection of individuals linked by agreement into a group.

The first category comprises cases where the issue in question is beyond the constitutional competence assigned to the courts under our conception of the separation of powers. The distinctive feature of all these cases is that once the forbidden area is identified, the court may not adjudicate on the matters within it, even if it is necessary to do so in order to decide some other issue which is itself unquestionably justiciable.

The law treats unincorporated religious communities as voluntary associations. It views the constitution of a voluntary religious association as a civil contract as it does the contract of association of a secular body: the contract by which members agree to be bound on joining an association sets out the rights and duties of both the members and its governing organs.

I infer that by "unincorporated association" in this context Parliament meant two or more persons bound together for one or more common purposes, not being business purposes, by mutual undertakings, each having mutual duties and obligations, in an organisation which has rules which identify in whom control of it and its funds rests and upon what terms and which can be joined or left at will. The bond of union between the members of an unincorporated association has to be contractual.

The general rule is that a gift on trust must have a cestui que trust and must be for the benefit of individuals, unless charitable. It must have a definite object, and there must be someone in whose favour the court can enforce it.