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SSRN Electronic Journal
Article . 2022 . Peer-reviewed
Data sources: Crossref
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/97...
Part of book or chapter of book . 2023 . Peer-reviewed
Data sources: Crossref
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Freedom of Testamentary Disposition

Authors: Paul B. Miller;

Freedom of Testamentary Disposition

Abstract

Abstract American law is notoriously solicitous of property owners’ testamentary freedom. Interpretive theorists cannot but acknowledge its centrality to enabling law. Yet freedom of testamentary disposition has attracted criticism on normative grounds for centuries. Indeed, it is widely viewed as one of the most tenuous of incidents of private ownership. This chapter examines leading defences of testamentary freedom and, finding them lacking, offers an alternative. Viewed within conventional frames of the general morality of property, wide testamentary freedom proves difficult to justify. Arguments from property, autonomy, social utility, and an obligation of provision each fail to ground laws enabling testamentary freedom. This chapter argues that testamentary freedom is better defended on the footing of the morality of gift relationships, with particular attention to the value of testamentary benefaction in enabling the expression of moral motivation, the practice of virtue, and realisation of goods essential to human flourishing. An advantage of this approach is that it recognises moral complexity, allowing one to appreciate the value of dispositions that comport with the focal moral sense of benefactions as gifts, while at the same time pinpointing ways in which other dispositions can prove morally defective despite their legal validity.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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