Category Archives: Succession
Goffe and Mandel, ‘Resolution of family inheritance, succession and trust disputes in the US: judicial and nonjudicial approaches’
ABSTRACT In the United States, family trust controversies can be resolved through both judicial and nonjudicial methods. The Uniform Trust Code, enacted in 2000, changed common law to allow nonjudicial settlement agreements, with six primary methods for modifying irrevocable trusts: using existing trust powers, decanting, nonjudicial settlement agreements (NJSAs), merger, and powers of appointment. Washington […]
Smith and Davis, ‘Al-Thani and another v Al Thani and others [2024] UKPC 35 – creative arguments and the transmissibility of shares following the death of a shareholder’
ABSTRACT This article discusses the recent decision of the Privy Council in Al-Thani & anr v Al Thani & ors [2024] UKPC 35, which considers whether shares are classified as moveable or immovable property under the law of the British Virgin Islands and the implications of this on their transmissibility following the death of a […]
Jane Thomson, ‘Public Order and Capricious Wills in Quebec: Some Important Lessons for the Rest of Canada’
ABSTRACT Quebec is a leader when it comes to avoiding testamentary conditions that perpetuate discrimination. It has held this a position for over a century, with its public order decisions long pre-dating famous common law cases hailed as firsts in this area of the law. Some might balk at the idea of citing Quebec jurisprudence […]
Jane Thomson, ‘“And Two Cows to my Wife … so Long as she Remains my Widow”: Public Policy and Testamentary Marriage Clauses in Canada’
ABSTRACT This article, part one of a two part project, provides a comprehensive review of the law surrounding marriage conditions in wills in Canada, including the civil law jurisdiction of Quebec, through a quantitative study of nearly every electronically reported Canadian decision involving a marriage clause in a will. It begins with an overview of […]
Alyssa DiRusso, ‘A Critical Analysis of The Law of Death, Marriage, and Wealth’
ABSTRACT Although family law scholars have robustly criticized the law for its preferences for marriage (and sometimes non-marriage), a critical trusts and estates perspective can enhance this discussion. The following paper will demonstrate how the zone of overlap between trusts and estates and family law – as marriages near death – is particularly fraught and […]
Alyssa DiRusso, ‘Life and Death Matters in Conflict of Laws’
ABSTRACT This article explores the complex and often inconsistent legal landscape surrounding the determination of death and survivorship in the United States, emphasizing the challenges posed by conflicting state laws DiRusso, Alyssa A, Life and Death Matters in Conflict of Laws (May 1, 2023), Tulane Law Review 97, no 5 (May 2023), 703-742.
Ryan, Horton and Weisbord, ‘Uncontested Trusts in Court’
ABSTRACT Supposedly, trusts transmit wealth privately and only require judicial intervention if they spark litigation. However, we assembled a dataset of 1,431 trust filings from a seven year period in San Francisco Superior Court and found that 971 (68%) did not involve a dispute. This Article describes why these uncontested trusts ended up in the […]
David Sheldon, ‘A deathbed gift of registered land: a comment on Rahman v Hassan ’
The doctrine of Donatio mortis causa (DMC), otherwise known as deathbed gifts, has developed to allow a donor to make a gift of property to someone outside of their will, and the formalities contained in the Wills Act 1837 s 9, which is conditional upon death. For a deathbed gift to take effect, King v […]
Call for Abstracts: The Law of Succession and the Wills Bill: Selwyn College Cambridge, 13 April 2026
The organisers seek abstracts of research papers concerning the draft Wills Bill 2025 and the Law Commission’s consultation and reports in this matter. As ever a combination of different perspectives will allow us to understand the policy choices in the Bill, those provisions that arguably ought to be in the Bill, and the problems solved, […]
Ronald Scalise, ‘The Nonprobate “Civil” War in Louisiana, Part I: PODs and TODs, OMG!’
INTRODUCTION Louisiana is in the midst of a war – a quiet and cold ‘civil’ war between traditional forces of inheritance law that bring about the orderly transfer of property at death and the rogue forces of inter-vivos relations that have final effect at death. The former is the domain of traditional civilian succession law, […]