0 And when is it appropriate to see a certain person as a believer?
This is "a special category of relationships, in which a person grants power to another over his own affairs without that person having any real opportunity to maintain his own affairs" (Licht, at p. 1). In such cases, "a serious concern arises about opportunistic behavior on the part of the party in power" (Licht article, at p. 38). As Yifat Naftali Ben-Zion noted, "the relationship of trust is distinguished from other relations in that one party has the ability to exercise discretion in relation to the interest or asset of the beneficiary, and their basic role is to control the exploitation and opportunism that may arise in these circumstances" (Yifat Naftali Ben-Zion The Law of Trust in a Comparative View: On Legal Theory, Case Law and Everything in Between 61 (2022) (hereinafter: Naftali Ben Zion)).
In the typical case, in which the imposition of the duty is justified, there is a power disparity between the parties. "The concern is that the fiduciary's unique status, the power relations between the parties, and the information gaps between them, will lead to the fact that despite his obligation to act to promote the interests of the beneficiary, the fiduciary will take advantage of his position in order to take over the beneficiary's property for his personal needs" (ibid., at p. 330).
Still, power disparities - such - are not enough. In many cases, there are relations in our world, in which there are power disparities. What will we do, and we live in a reality that is not equal? If the power gaps are sufficient to impose duties of trust, it will lead to an undue burden imposed by the law on social conduct, and to a contempt for beliefs. The duties it imposes are heavy and heavy. They should not be dismissed lightly. Therefore, "the legal challenge is to identify the threshold, beyond which the other party is considered trustworthy, and thus the use of power for the purpose of promoting personal interest ceases to be legitimate and becomes abuse" (Licht article, at p. 41).