Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
2-28-2020
Abstract
REVIEW: Naomi R. Cahn, Dismantling the Trusts and Estates Canon, 2019 Wis. L. Rev. 165 (2019).
All areas of the law have certain foundational principles or beliefs that are widely shared. These underlying assumptions often go unchallenged. In the trusts and estates field, these principles include: (1) giving a certain amount of ongoing control to the transferor, or in the case of a decedent, to the “dead hand,” (2) respect for formality, (3) the importance of the traditional, legally-recognized family, and (4) the “wealth” narrative that focuses on the transmission of conventional forms of wealth.
In her thought-provoking article, Professor Naomi Cahn challenges these underlying principles. She, correctly, I believe, identifies the wealth narrative as the “strand…that structures the rest of the field.” For example, she notes that dead-hand control is only important when a decedent dies with wealth to be transferred, and she analyzes how wealth helps transfer privilege and maintain the status quo. Professor Cahn also looks at who has wealth and recognizes that the sociodemographic diversity of who has wealth impacts this area of law. She seeks to get her readers to challenge the foundational principles of the field by considering new perspectives from race, gender, class, and sexual orientation.
Publication Title
Trusts & Estates Jotwell
Last Page
2 pages
Recommended Citation
Sergio Pareja,
Deconstructing Foundational Principles of Trusts and Estates Law,
Trusts & Estates Jotwell
(2020).
Available at:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/792
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