Comparative Succession Law : Mandatory Family Protection

This third volume in a series on Comparative Succession Law concerns the entitlement of family members to override the provisions of a deceased person's will to obtain money or assets (or more money or assets) from the person's estate. Some countries, notably those in the civil law tradition (such as France or Germany), confer a pre-ordained share of the deceased's estate or of its value on certain members of the deceased's family, and especially on the deceased's children and spouse. Other countries, notably those in the common law tradition (such as England, Canada, or Australia), leave the matter to the discretion of the court, the amount awarded depending primarily on financial need. Whichever form it takes, mandatory family provision is both a protection against disinheritance and also, therefore, a restriction on testamentary freedom.

The volume focuses on Europe and on countries influenced by the European experience. In addition to detailed treatment of the law in Austria, England and Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, and Spain, the book also has chapters on Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Canada, the countries of Latin America, and the People's Republic of China. Some other countries are covered more briefly, and there is a separate chapter on Islamic law. The book opens with accounts of Roman law and of the law in medieval and early-modern Europe, and it concludes with a comparative assessment of the law as it is today in the countries and legal traditions surveyed in this volume.

Kenneth Reid taught law at the University of Edinburgh from 1980 until his retirement in 2019. He was appointed to the Chair of Property Law in 1994 and to the Chair of Scots Law in 2008. From 1995 to 2005 he served as a Scottish Law Commissioner, where he was responsible for a major programme of reform of land law, subsequently implemented by legislation. His many publications focus on property law, the law of succession, trusts law, legal history, and comparative law.

Marius de Waal has been Professor of Private Law in the Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, at the University of Stellenbosch since 1992. He teaches the law of succession and the law of trusts and he is the co-author of standard handbooks in these areas of South African law. Apart from the law of succession and the law of trusts, his publications also include contributions on the law of property and comparative law. He is currently Head of the Department of Private Law in the Faculty of Law.

Reinhard Zimmermann is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Affiliate Professor at Bucerius Law School, and has been Visiting Professor at the Universities of Edinburgh, Stellenbosch, New Orleans, Chicago, Berkeley, Yale, and Auckland. He is the author of numerous books on comparative law and legal history, including The Law of Obligations (OUP, 1996) and The New German Law of Obligations (OUP, 2005).