The law commission's succession project: a critical analysis and an alternative model

Abstract

In the years 1993 to 1997 the New Zealand Law Commission conducted its succession project. The purpose of this reform project was to review the law of succession as a whole with a view to unifying it under the roof of a single statute and in the course of the project the Commission released three reports and one discussion paper. This thesis analyses and evaluates the reform proposals related to testamentary claims. It argues that the majority of these proposals have been well thought out and deserved implementation, but also that the proposals for a reform of the Family Protection Act 1955 have not been persuasive and rightly remain unimplemented. The thesis then presents its own proposal for a reform of the 1955 Act. As a major part of this, the question whether adult children should have a legal right to claim for a participation in their parents' estate is examined. After exploring the conceptual basis of such a right and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of its enforcement the writer hopes to have established that adult children should have a right to claim against their parent's estate. Subsequently, a suitable mode for the organisation of the corresponding claim is explored. Drawing on the systems that operate under the civil law tradition a model operating on fixed entitlements is presented. The thesis contains 49.993 words, excluding footnotes, headings and sub-headings.