INHERITANCE

also called succession, the devolution of property on an heir or heirs upon the death of the owner. The term inheritance also designates the property itself. In modern society the process is regulated in minute detail by law. In the civil law of the continental European pattern, the pertinent branch is generally called the law of succession. In Anglo-American common law it was customary to distinguish between descent of real estate and distribution of personal estate. The rules applicable to the two kinds of property have been fused, but no common, overall name is yet universally accepted. In England books dealing with the subject are varyingly entitled On Wills, On Probate, On Succession, or On Executors and Administrators. In the United States the term probate law is frequently, although inaccurately, applied to the field as a whole. Following the title of an important statute of the state of New York, another term, law of decedents' estates, has been gaining ground, as has the law of succession. also called Succession, the devolution of property on an heir or heirs upon the death of its owner. The term inheritance also designates the property itself. The laws of inheritance are a body of principles and regulations governing the means by which assets and liabilities may be transferred, after death, to designated successors to the decedent's estate. In civil-law countries this area of law is referred to as law of succession, while in the Anglo-American system it is known as probate law, law of decedents' estates, or, more generally, law of inheritance. The concept of inheritance depends upon a common acceptance of the notion of private ownership of goods and property. In early societies a dead man's relics were buried with him as a ritual practice or apportioned to relatives and other tribesmen. Under many systems, including some contemporary socialist governments, land is considered communal property, and rights to it are redistributed, rather than bequeathed, upon the death of a community member. A will, sometimes called a testament, refers either to the actual process by which the posthumous apportionment of an estate is legally specified or to the document that serves as an authorized record of it. Though an oral will is acceptable under limited circumstances, the more common written form is either holographicwritten entirely in the testator's hand and unwitnessedor printed or typed and attested to by witnesses who are not beneficiaries or by a notary. A will whose execution meets all formal legal standards cannot be invalidated unless it is proved that the testator was coerced into making it or was mentally incompetent when he made it. A will can be revoked before the testator's death by destroying the document itself or by replacing it with a revised version. Prior to the evolution of the will as a legal instrument of testation, the course of inheritance could be directed through a mock sale of the estate to a third party, to be distributed as specified following the seller's deatha common Roman practice until the 1st century BC. In medieval continental Europe the church was instrumental in maintaining testamentary inheritance, though the practice was not permanently established throughout Europe until the mid-16th century. Freedom to bequeath by will has traditionally been limited in order to protect beneficiaries from unreasonable conditions of succession and to prevent complete and unjustified disinheritance of surviving dependents. In many countries, though not all, this is provided for by the indefeasible share system, which specifies a minimum portion of the estate that must be assigned to the surviving spouse and, often, to the progeny as well. In the United States, common-law states allow the spouse to take action against the will, guaranteeing that spouse a specific percentage of the property. The practice of primogeniture, in regard to the passing of real property to a single heir, dominated English inheritance law for most of its history. Because this system was commonly used by the aristocracy as a means of maintaining family estates intact, the institution of entails was established, which prohibited the distribution or other disposal of real property by the heir; thus the land would stay within the family. The inflexibility and economic inefficiency of this practice in modern times resulted in its complete collapse. Intestacy laws, which govern the succession of estates whose distribution is not directed by a will, universally view kinship between the decedent and the beneficiary as a primary consideration. The Roman system codified by the emperor Justinian, a strong influence on later English law, followed a hierarchy of successors that began with the decedent's offspring and continued from his ascendants to full-blood, then half-blood siblings; English law provided more substantially for the surviving spouse and abandoned the distinction between full- and half-blood siblings. Recent trends in Anglo-American common-law practice have deemphasized traditional concerns with strictly familial succession and have for the most part ceased to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate offspring as legal heirs. The regulations governing the succession of a decedent's debts along with his estate are referred to generally as laws of transfer. Under the civil-law system that prevails in much of continental Europe, rightful heirs may decline succession to an estate if its assets are not sufficient to cover its liabilities: in the event of an heir's acceptance, responsibility for inherited debts is limited to the value of the estate. Under the system presently in use in England, a personal representative specified in the will is granted responsibility for its fulfillment by the probate division of the High Court, while in the United States the administrator of the will is appointed by the probate court and is authorized to act only under its close scrutiny. As a result of the enactment of the Uniform Probate Code of 1969, some of the formalities of court supervision can be eliminated by selecting one of several procedures suited for inheritance cases of varying degrees of complexity. Additional reading The historical background of modern laws of inheritance Max Kaser, Roman Private Law, 3rd ed. (1980; originally published in German, 10th ed., 1977); W.W. Buckland, A Text-Book of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian, 3rd ed. rev. by Peter Stein (1963, reprinted 1975); Rudolf Hbner, History of Germanic Private Law (1918, reprinted 1968; originally published in German, 2nd ed., 1913); Frederick Pollock and Frederick W. Maitland, History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, vol. 2, 2nd ed. (1959, reissued 1968); and Sir William Holdsworth, History of English Law, 7th rev. ed. by A.L. Goodhart and H.G. Hanbury, 17 vol. (195672). Discussions and critiques of inheritance John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, vol. 1 (1848), available also in many later editions; Lujo Brentano, Alte und neue Feudalitt: Gesammelte Aufstze zur Erbrechtspolitik, 2nd ed. (1924); Josiah Wedgwood, The Economics of Inheritance (1929, reprinted 1971); Sir Josiah Stamp, Some Economic Factors in Modern Life (1929); Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1942; originally published in German, 1884); and Karl Renner, The Institutions of Private Law and Their Social Functions (1949, reissued 1976; originally published in German, 1929). Marvin B. Sussman, Judith N. Cates, and David T. Smith, The Family and Inheritance (1970), is a case study culminating in conclusions about testamentary patterns, practices, and effects of inheritance in American society. The current law of inheritance Monographic treatises on contemporary inheritance laws are collected in Murad Ferid and Karl Firsching (eds.), Internationales Erbrecht (1955 ), a multivolume publication, loose-leaf for updates and additions, covering, among others, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Hungary, the United States, and Vatican City. Concise digests of the succession laws of all jurisdictions of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other countries are published annually in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. For the United States, see William Herbert Page, Page on the Law of Wills, rev. ed. by William J. Bowe and Douglas H. Parker, 8 vol. in 9 (196065), kept up-to-date by annual supplements; and Max Rheinstein and Mary Ann Glendon, Law of Decedents' Estates (1971), an introduction. For England, see H.S. Theobald, Theobald on Wills, 13th ed. by Stephen Cretney and Gerald Dworkin (1971); D.H. Parry, Parry and Clark on the Law of Succession, 8th ed. by J.B. Clark (1983); W.J. Williams, Williams' Law Relating to Wills, 5th ed. by C.H. Sherrin, R.F.D. Barlow, and R.A. Wallington, 2 vol. (1980); and Williams, Mortimer, and Sunnucks on Executors, Administrators, and Probate: Being the 16th Ed. of Williams on Executors and the 4th Ed. of Mortimer on Probate, by J.H.G. Sunnucks, J.G. Ross Martyn, and K.M. Garnett (1982). For Scotland, see David M. Walker, Principles of Scottish Private Law, 3rd ed., 4 vol. (198283). Max Rheinstein Mary Ann Glendon