Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Hipotecas Y Responsabilidad Limitada (En Enfoque Desde El Análisis Económico Del Derecho), Martin Paolantonio

Martin Paolantonio

Análisis de la responsabilidad limitada e ilimitada del deudor hipotecario, con un enfoque de AED y referencias de derecho comparado

The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

In 1918, the United States confiscated virtually all German-owned intellectual property assets within its jurisdiction. Out of 6,000 patents in the chemical field, 4,500 were assigned for a very modest consideration to an newly-established entity, the Chemical Foundation, which was incorporated with the objective of licensing and managing them for the benefit of the United States chemical industry. This article describes the origins and activities of the Chemical Foundation, and considers whether it provides a useful model, or at least useful lessons, for the collective management of patents today.

The Gendered Dimensions Of Inheritance: Empirical Food For Legal Thought, Daphna Hacker

Daphna Hacker

No abstract provided.

Soulless Wills, Daphna Hacker

Daphna Hacker

No abstract provided.

Integrating Marital Property Into A Spouse’S Elective Share, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

First, this Article begins with history, as this forms the basis of electiveshare law. It is necessary to begin with the historical basis of a spouse's right to support, and then proceed to examine how and why a spouse obtained a share of the property acquired during marriage. Second, because a spouse's rights at death were often very different from those that a spouse would obtain at divorce, it is necessary to explain the various judicial and statutory models adopted by the states to provide a modicum of protection to a surviving spouse at death. There are many models and …

Should Charitable Trust Enforcement Rights Be Assignable?, Joshua C. Tate

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In recent years, scholars have given much attention to the problem of charitable trust enforcement. Departing from the common law, section 405(c) of the Uniform Trust Code provides that “[t]he settlor of a charitable trust, among others, may maintain a proceeding to enforce the trust.” This Article addresses the question of whether, and to what extent, a settlor’s right to enforce a charitable trust should be assignable to third parties. Should the law permit the settlor of a charitable trust to assign her enforcement rights after the creation of the trust, or should assignments be recognized only if they are …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 2009-2010), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 2010 Session of the General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation (i) adopting the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, (ii) passing emergency legislation for the construction of tax-oriented wills and trusts of persons who die during 2010 with documents drafted prior thereto, (iii) revising the small-estate statutes, and (iv) clarifying the burial power of attorney. In addition, there were six other enactments, and seven opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia during the one-year period ending June 1, 2010 that present issues of interest in this area. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments, …

Helping Nonprofits Police Themselves: What Trust Law Can Teach Us About Conflicts Of Interest, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

No abstract provided.

Fiduciaries With Conflicting Obligations, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the dilemma of a fiduciary acting for parties who, as among themselves, have conflicting commercial interests - an inquiry fundamentally different from that of the traditional study of conflicts between fiduciaries and their beneficiaries. Existing legal principles do not fully capture this dilemma because agency law focuses primarily on an agent’s duty to a given principal, not on conflicts among principals; trust law focuses primarily on gratuitous transfers; and commercial law generally addresses arm’s length, not fiduciary, relationships. The dilemma has become critically important, however, as defaults increase in the multitude of conflicting securities (e.g., classes of …

Integrating Catholic Social Thought In Elder Law And Estate Planning Courses: Reflections On Law, Age And Ethics, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

A course in elder law or estate planning encompasses many of the most profound issues that arise in human life: the contemplation of mortality, ambivalent attitudes toward property and its proper distribution, complexities in family relationships, obligations to support loved ones, anticipation of physical or mental challenges, and reflections on one’s desired legacy to loved ones. Although there is much in the Catholic tradition and in the Scriptures themselves that speaks to these questions in an indirect way, this has not often been fully explored because this field may not, on its face, have an obvious connection to religious tradition. …

Protecting Our Aging Retirees: Converting 401(K) Accounts Into Federally Guaranteed Lifetime Annuities, Lawrence A. Frolik

Articles

America’s retirees are faced with a potential financial disaster. Economic security in retirement has long depended on Social Security, private savings and employer provided retirement plans. While much attention has been paid to the financial problems of Social Security and the lack of private saving for retirement, little attention has been paid to an alarming development in employer provided retirement plans: the likely inability of retirees during the long years of their retirement to successfully manage their retirement funds accumulated in 401(k) and similar accounts. We as a society have set up a funding system for retirement that assumes retirees …

Graveside Birthday Parties: The Legal Consequences Of Forming Families Posthumously, Browne C. Lewis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay highlights some of the legal consequences resulting from the widespread availability and use of reproductive technology. The Essay is divided into three parts. Part I examines the steps that must be taken to identify the legal parents of the posthumously conceived children. Part II discussed the reproductive rights of the deceased gamete providers. Since most posthumous reproduction is done using the sperm of dead men, the discussion centers on male reproductive rights. Finally, Part III focuses on the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children.

Message To Congress: Halt The Tax Exemption For Perpetual Trusts, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The federal estate tax is in abeyance this year. The popular press has picked up on the possibility that the estates of billionaires such as the late George Steinbrenner, who owned the New York Yankees, will escape the tax. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, and the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus of Montana, are now considering two questions: what the maximum rate and exemption will be when the estate tax returns and whether the tax will be reinstated for this year. Lurking behind the headlines but equally important is …

Immortality And The Law: The Rising Power Of The American Dead, Ray Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

This book takes a riveting look at how the law responds to that distinctly American dream of immortality. While American law provides virtually no protections for the interests we hold most dear—our bodies and our reputations—when it comes to property interests, the American dead have greater control than anywhere else in the world. Moreover, these rights are growing daily. From grave robbery to Elvis impersonators, Madoff shows how the law of the dead has a direct impact on how we live. Madoff examines how the rising power of the American dead enables the deceased to exert control over their wealth …

Gay And Lesbian Elders: History, Law, And Identity Politics In The United States, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The approximately two million gay and lesbian elders in the United States are an underserved and understudied population. At a time when gay men and lesbians enjoy an unprecedented degree of social acceptance and legal protection, many elders face the daily challenges of aging isolated from family, detached from the larger gay and lesbian community, and ignored by mainstream aging initiatives. Drawing on materials from law, history, and social theory, this book integrates practical proposals for reform with larger issues of sexuality and identity. Beginning with a summary of existing demographic data and offering a historical overview of pre-Stonewall views …

Using Podcasts To Support Students In A Land Law Class, Michael Lp Lower, Keith Thomas, Annisa Ho

Michael LP Lower

This paper describes the experience of creating and using podcasts to support student learning of land law for JD and LL.M. students in Hong Kong. Podcasting involves preparing a series of audio or video broadcast files for download onto a digital media player by students. Four different types of podcast were prepared for the law class in question. Some were simply podcasts, while others were embedded in PowerPoint slides and converted into flash files using ‘Authorpoint’. Together, the podcasts sought to give students an introduction/ review of the main topics and of the problem questions discussed in class.

The aim …

Symposium, Internet Expression In The 21st Century: Where Technology & Law Collide: Introduction, Michael R. Dimino, Tonya M. Evans-Walls, Nicole M. Santo

Michael R Dimino

Integrating Iras With Snts, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

Pooled Trusts: An Introduction And Personal History, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

What's Reasonable?: Self-Defense And Mistake In Criminal And Tort Law, Caroline Forell

Caroline A Forell

In this Article, Professor Forell examines the criminal and tort mistake-as-to-self-defense doctrines. She uses the State v. Peairs criminal and Hattori v. Peairs tort mistaken self-defense cases to illustrate why application of the reasonable person standard to the same set of facts in two areas of law can lead to different outcomes. She also uses these cases to highlight how fundamentally different the perception of what is reasonable can be in different cultures. She then questions whether both criminal and tort law should continue to treat a reasonably mistaken belief that deadly force is necessary as justifiable self-defense. Based on …