Key Concepts in Succession Law Key Concepts in Succession Law Explore the fundamental concepts and principles of the Law of Successions. Click on any section below to learn more. 🏛️ General Considerations & Patrimony Definition of succession and the concept of patrimony. ⏳ Opening of Succession Time and place where succession begins. 💎 Inheritable Property Scope of the hereditary estate, including corporeal and incorporeal rights. 👤 Capacity to Inherit Who has the legal right to inherit. 🚫 Unworthiness to Succeed Grounds...
Source: Family Law Teaching Material
There is no generally accepted
definition of family law. ‘Family law is usually seen as the law governing the
relationship between children and parents, and between adults in close
emotional relationships’[1]. Many areas of law can have
an impact on family life: tax laws, immigration laws as well as insurance laws
have great connection with family law. As Dewar noted:
Most legal disciplines
would claim to possess at least one of two forms of coherence. The first stems
from the organizing legal concept from which the discipline in question derives
its name: ‘contract’, ‘negligence’, ‘trust’. The second relates to the set of
‘real world’ problems with which the discipline is concerned: labor relations,
housing, land use, commerce, government and administration. At first glance, it
would seem that the area of study designated as family law possesses a
coherence of the second sort. After all, the term ‘family’ has in itself no
legal significance (although attempts are often made to define the family for
legal purposes); and the subject usually comprises a mixed bag of legal rules
and concepts, such as those concerned with marriage, divorce, parents and
children and property, each possessing a different historical origin and
pattern of development. The only justification for studying them together is
that they all in some way concern the family, a social phenomenon constituted
outside the categories of the law. For this reason, family law has grown over
the years to include parts of other legal disciplines of relevance to the
family, such as property, criminal and housing law, taxation, social security,
evidence and procedure; as well as incorporating legal aspects of phenomena
thought to have a ‘family’ connection, such as domestic violence, child abuse,
marital rape, surrogacy, homelessness and pensions (to name a few).
In spite of this, can it still be said that family law is a coherent
area of study? It has already been suggested that it cannot satisfy the first
criterion of coherence mentioned above; and if it were to satisfy the second,
the subject would be a good deal broader than it is now, probably unmanageable
so. For if we were really to take the family as the starting point, and were to
consider all areas of law relevant to the family, we would want to include much
that is not currently considered part of the subject. For example, we might
wish to consider the welfare state, the fiscal system and the labor market in
more detail than is customary; and we may also want to consider the areas of
education and health services. These are all areas of relevance to families and
in which the family is encountered as a necessary relay in the implementation
of programs of social action. But family law has not been interpreted as
broadly as this. Instead, it focuses primarily on the more traditional question
of status and is thus primarily concerned with the means by which status is
conferred, such as marriage, parenthood and cohabitation, and on the means by
which status may alter, such as divorce or state action to remove children from
parents. More recently, it has become concerned with the problem of individuals
abused by members of their own family.
[1] Jonathan Herring, 9
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