Law Commons^™

Distributive Justice And Donative Intent, Alexander Boni-Saenz

All Faculty Scholarship

The inheritance system is beset by formalism. Probate courts reject wills on technicalities and refuse to correct obvious drafting mistakes by testators. These doctrines lead to donative errors, or outcomes that are not in line with the decedent’s donative intent. While scholars and reformers have critiqued the intent-defeating effects of formalism in the past, none have examined the resulting distribution of donative errors and connected it to broader social and economic inequalities. Drawing on egalitarian theories of distributive justice, this Article develops a novel critique of formalism in the inheritance law context. The central normative claim is that formalistic wills …

Book Reviews, Herman L. Trautman, W. Harold Bigham

Vanderbilt Law Review

THE BEST OF TRUSTS AND ESTATES-ESTATE PLANNING

There are one hundred and four articles arranged in eight chapters entitled, "Estate Planning-A Panoramic View," "Using the Marital Deduction, "Income Tax Planning, " "Making the Most of Gifts,""Minimizing Administration Problems," "How to Handle Business Interests," "Arranging Life Insurance," and "Drafting Wills and Trusts." The citation and date of the original publication of each article is stated, and in many instances there is an addendum by the author which brings the article up to the date of the book. In addition there are excellent introductory commentaries by the editors at the beginning of …