This article presents the research results of an extensive examination of 1893 Los Angeles County probate records, which are the earliest such records still remaining in the Los Angeles County Archives. This research was undertaken to determine what effect the 1861 California Married Women's...

The civil justice system has struggled to resolve disputes over end-of-life transfers. The two most common grounds for challenging the validity of a gift, will, or trust—mental incapacity and undue influence—are vague, hinge on the state of mind of a dead person, and allow factfinders to...

The donor is the primary decision-maker regarding the distribution of her property after death, as the law grants her broad freedom of disposition to decide what property should go to which donees. The rationale underlying freedom of disposition is that the choices of individual donors produce...

This Article examines how more than 50% of children living today may be disadvantaged by 1950s era inheritance laws that privilege and protect only those children living in nuclear families with their biological parents. Because so many children today are living in blended families —...

The laws of inheritance hold a very special position in the injunctions of Shariah and are in fact a part of the very exalted "HudoodUllah" and not only is it commanded to safeguard His Hudood rather it is said that disobedience of these rules will destroy all good and pious deeds....