Category Archives: Succession
Sarah White, ‘Legacies and Legalities: Bequests of Land to Ecclesiastical Institutions in England c 1180-1300’
ABSTRACT In English testamentary history, there is a clear divide between Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman testamentary practice, with the primary difference being that in the latter case, heritable land could not be bequeathed. Once the transfer of land required the livery of seisin, a practice introduced during the reign of Henry II (1154-89), it was not […]
Arbel and Lopez, ‘Governing Generative AI Beyond the Grave’
ABSTRACT Post-mortem generative emulation (GenEm) has vaulted from science fiction to commercial reality. AI companies now reanimate deceased loved ones as ‘deadbots’, while studios digitally resurrect long-dead actors in first-run movies. Legislatures in entertainment hubs like Tennessee and California have responded with statutes protecting celebrity likenesses through measures such as the 2024 ELVIS Act, and […]
Barry Cushman, ‘Reforming Revocation by Physical Act’
ABSTRACT This article is a companion piece to ‘The Pathologies of Revocation by Physical Act’. There I documented the various problems that are created by the law’s recognition of the power of a testator to revoke his will in whole or in part by physical act. That article canvassed five different areas of law in […]
Kevin Bennardo, ‘Natural Objects and Testamentary Freedom’
ABSTRACT This Article explores the tension between the incorporation of the ‘natural objects of the decedent’s bounty’ into various standards in inheritance law and the claimed organizing principle of inheritance law – granting freedom to testators to direct the distribution of their estates. In brief, the ‘natural objects of the decedent’s bounty’ has been defined […]
Lisa Lopez, ‘An Economic Comparison of Succession Law Systems: Prioritizing Spouses vs Forced Shares For Children and Proposal for a Standards Based Approach to Child Disinheritance’
ABSTRACT In the United States (‘US’), the foundation of succession law is the freedom of disposition. Priority is placed on the testator’s freedom to choose what happens with their property after they die. Thus, laws governing the distribution of property in both testate and intestate situations are aimed at honoring the testator’s intent. In the […]
Shriyadita Srivastava, ‘Secret trusts in India: reconciling testamentary freedom with legal formalism’
ABSTRACT Secret trusts, a common law doctrine, allow testators to bequeath assets confidentially, bypassing formal testamentary requirements. While the UK recognizes fully and half-secret trusts, Indian law – governed by the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, and the Indian Succession Act, 1925 – prioritizes statutory formalism, leaving little room for such informal arrangements. This article examines […]
William Eves, ‘Development and Experimentation in the Early Common Law Forms of Action: The Procedural Rules of Mort d’Ancestor and their Effect on Litigation in the Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries’
ABSTRACT This article considers the procedural design of the early common law action mort d’ancestor, introduced in 1176. It first considers how the action was developed to provide swift justice while also allowing the defendant (or ‘tenant’) adequate opportunities to appear in court. It then examines the impact of this design on litigation at the […]
Jürgen Norbert Dinkel, ‘“The Rich Uncle from America”: Transnational Inheritance Transfers between the United States, Germany, and Russia, 1840s-1980s’
ABSTRACT This article examines cross-border inheritance transfers between the United States, Germany, and Russia between the 1840s and the late 1980s. These transfers were not only characterized by private considerations and kinship networks but were also strongly intertwined with national and international political developments. This article argues that the history of transnational inheritance transfers since […]
Kevin Bennardo, ‘Death and Debts’
ABSTRACT Uniform Probate Code section 2-606(a)(1) provides for automatic non-ademption of the unpaid purchase price of specifically devised property that was sold by the decedent after their will was executed but before their death. Rather than receiving the specific property that was left to them in the will, the named beneficiary receives the balance of […]
Chiara Crivelli, ‘Eighteenth-Century English Marriage and Inheritance Law in Pride and Prejudice’
ABSTRACT This paper examines how Pride and Prejudice reflects the intersection of marriage, inheritance, and gender in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century England, with a focus on the legal implications for women. The central research question is: ‘How does Pride and Prejudice engage with contemporary marriage and inheritance laws to reflect the economic and legal dependencies of […]