This book makes a compelling case for placing the social and legal practices of inheritance centre stage to make sense of fundamental questions of our time.
Drawing on historical, literary, sociological, and legal analysis, this rich collection of original, interdisciplinary and international contributions demonstrates how inheritance is and has always been about far more than the set of legal processes for the distribution of wealth and property upon death.
The contributions range from exploring the intractable tensions underlying family disputes and the legal and political debates about taxation, to revisiting literary plots in the past and presenting a contemporary artistic challenge of heirship.
With an introduction that presents a critical mapping of the field of inheritance studies, this collection reveals the complexity of ideas about ‘passing on’, ‘legacies’, and ‘heirlooms’; troubles some of the enduring consequences of ‘charitable bequests’, ‘family money’, and ‘estate planning; and, deepens our understanding of the intimate and political practices of inheritance.
Edited by:
Suzanne Lenon,
Daniel Monk
Imprint: Hart Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781509964819
ISBN 10: 1509964819
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 21 September 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Introduction: Why Inheritance? Daniel Monk ( University of London, UK) and Suzanne Lenon (University of Lethbridge, Canada) Part One: Foregrounding Inequalities – Past and Present 2. Defining Family Trees and Building Family Fortunes: A Look into Dispossession and Enrichment Through Inheritance Laws, Allison Tait (University of Richmond, UK) 3. ‘My Reputed Children’: Legacies of Enslavement in Atlantic-Island Wills, Anne Bottomley (Kent Law School, UK) 4. ‘Charitable Inclinations’: Women’s Bequests to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, Máiréad Enright (Birmingham Law School, UK) Part Two: Legal Fiction and Wills in Fiction 5. Surnames and Inheritance: Will-Plotting and Female Economic Power in the Eighteenth-Century Novel, Jolene Zigarovich (University of Northern Iowa, USA) 6. Murder, Inheritance and Family Provision in the Golden Age of English Detective Fiction, Rebecca Probert (Exeter University, UK) Part Three: Resistance, Rights and Agency 7. The Story of the Pink Cat: An Exploration of the Ways Care-Experienced People Navigate Inheritance, Delyth Edwards (University of Leeds, UK) and Rosie Canning (University of Southampton, UK) 8. Queer Property, Russell Perkins (Artist, USA) 9. Sentimental Value: Keeping Inheritance in the Family, Sarah Gilmartin (Lancaster University, UK) and Anita Purewal (Lancaster University, UK) Part Four: Adjudicating Inheritance/Adjudicating ‘Family’ 10. How Social Norms and Values Influence the Balance between Wills Variation Claimants and Testators, Allison A Cartier (Juris Doctor, Canada) 11. Testamentary Freedom in Debate: The Prerequisite of the Notary to Pass Down and to Inherit, Corinne Delmas (Université Gustave Eiffel, France) 12. Children in Need and the Great Intergenerational Wealth Transfer: Squaring the Impossible Circle of Testamentary Freedom, Family Obligations and the Role of the State, Heather Conway (Queen’s University Belfast, UK) and Sheena Grattan (TEP, UK) Part Five: Looking Backwards into the Future 13. The Power of Blood: How Succession Law’s Reliance on DNA Reinvigorates White Supremacy and the Politics of Biological Privilege, Danaya C Wright (University of Florida, USA) 14. Women, Property and Agency: Contours of Matrilineal Inheritance among the Nayars in Kerala, India, Lekha N B (Sree Narayana College, India) and Antony Palackal (University of Kerala, India) 15. Egalitarianism or Just a Need for Revenues? Debates on Inheritance Taxation in Scandinavia, Martin Dackling (Lund University, Sweden) 16. Émile Durkheim’s Proposal to Abolish Inheritance, Mélanie Plouviez (Côte d’Azur University, France)
Suzanne Lenon is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Daniel Monk is Professor of Law and Assistant Dean at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
