Private Law Theory

Felix B Chang, ‘How Should Inheritance Law Remediate Inequality?’, 97 Washington Law Review (forthcoming, 2022), available at SSRN. In United States inheritance law, we typically listen to what the person with the money wants. In his provocative essay, ‘How Should Inheritance Law Remediate Inequality?’, Professor Felix Chang challenges this bedrock principle of freedom of disposition and proposes a new vision of inheritance law that centers intergenerational economic mobility instead. By linking trusts and estates to other fields, such as business and tax law, this piece raises a host of interesting questions about whether inheritance law can truly address societal wealth inequality. Chang starts by tracing the twin histories of inheritance law scholarship and estate tax policy … (more)

[Alexander Boni-Saenz, JOTWELL, 18 August]

First posted 2021-08-18 16:00:58