Could a feminist perspective change the shape of the tax law? Most people understand that feminist reasoning has tremendous potential to affect, for example, the law of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and reproductive rights. Few people may be aware, however, that feminist analysis...

This short essay introduces a special issue of the ACTEC Law Journal devoted to the estate planning jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States. The issue includes two invited essays on the role of the court in developing the law in this area, as well as commentaries on seventeen of...

This is a short, in-class exercise/demonstration/dramatization to help introductory Federal Income Tax students understand the holding of Philadelphia Park Amusement Co. v. U.S., 126 F. Supp. 184 (Ct. Cl. 1954). Different students can be selected to play the parts of Narrator, Taxpayer, City of...

This article describes major changes in legal education between 1870 and 1900 and uses the University of Pennsylvania's experience with coeducation as the primary example. Generally speaking, the late nineteenth century was an era in which masculine terms defined law students and the legal...

This article critically examines the conflicting estate tax definitions of family in I.R.C. Sections 2036, 2032A and 6166. The sections use terms such as family and related in ways that conflict with each other and with lay understanding of the terms. From an historical perspective, the multiple...

The law of wills, trusts, and estates could benefit from consideration of its development and impact on people of color; women of all colors; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals; low-income and poor individuals; the disabled; and nontraditional families. One can measure the...

In this annual article for Tax Notes, Professor Crawford reviews ten notable estate and gift tax law review articles published in 2012. They are (in alphabetical order): (1) Karen Boxx, "Too Many Tiaras: Conflicting Fiduciary Duties in the Family-Owned Business Context;" (2) Jeffrey A. Cooper,...

Gifts of tangible personal property and closely-held business interests typically are made without a paper trail (e.g., cancelled check or deed recording). Because gift tax returns are not due until April 15 of the calendar year following the transfer, a non-compliant taxpayer can game the...

This Article considers important consequences of the commodification of human reproduction. Anyone who has opened a campus newspaper has seen advertisements seeking to match an infertile couple with a young woman who will “donate” her egg (in return for a fee). Some college-age men earn...

In this article, Professor Crawford proposes limiting the gift tax annual exclusion to outright transfers and transfers in trust that will be included in the beneficiary’s gross estate. The proposal is made as a part of the Shelf Project, a collaboration among tax professionals to develop...