Abstract
… At the dawn of the twentieth century, an unbridled freedom of testation prevailed in most of Canada. In the decades that followed, the law evolved to temper this principle in favour of protecting the family of a deceased person, so that obligations of support did not simply vanish upon death. The shape and structure of provision for the family is, however, diverse across the country. There is a great deal of variation even among the statutory regimes in the common law provinces; some require a claimant to show need, an inter vivos obligation of support, or both, while others allow claims even by adult independent children. Under those regimes, where a claimant has standing, the jurisdiction of the courts to intervene in the testator’s chosen distribution is highly discretionary …
Popovici, Alexandra and Smith, Lionel, Freedom of Testation and Family Claims in Canada (August 19, 2017). Forthcoming, Kenneth G C Reid, Marius J de Waal, and Reinhard Zimmermann (eds), Comparative Succession Law vol III (Oxford University Press, 2019).
First posted 2018-12-10 07:00:42
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