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- Title
Individualized Justice in Disputes over Dead Bodies.
- Authors
Foster, Frances H.
- Abstract
Trusts and estates scholars have challenged the outdated family paradigm of inheritance law. They have shown that the inheritance system's bias in favor of the "traditional" family excludes members of today's families, rewards the unworthy, ignores the meritorious and needy, and denies decedents control over distribution of their own property. Yet, those same scholars have rejected the approach that would best address the injustices of this paradigm: an equitable, individualized scheme that would transcend the family paradigm and base inheritance rights on the particular decedent's intent and actual relationships with survivors. The dominant view holds that fixed rules of inheritance based on family relationships are essential to avoid excessive administrative costs, inefficiency, and uncertainty in distribution of estates. This Article challenges the dominant view. It demonstrates that in resolving disputes over dead bodies courts have a long tradition of applying the very scheme that scholars have rejected. Courts have abandoned the fixed rules of the family paradigm to dispense individualized justice. The Article concludes that inheritance reformers should draw on this historical precedent to develop more flexible, individualized, and family-neutral approaches for dispositions of decedents' assets as well as remains.
- Subjects
INHERITANCE &; succession; DEAD bodies (Law); REAL property; TRUSTS &; trustees; FAMILIES; ESTATE planning; ESTATES (Law); TAXATION of decedents' estates; COURTS
- Publication
Vanderbilt Law Review, 2008, Vol 61, Issue 5, p1351
- ISSN
0042-2533
- Publication type
Article