Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-xrnlw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-11T22:55:33.096Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The rights of the dead through the prism of Israeli succession disputes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2015

Daphna Hacker
Daphna Hacker*
Affiliation:
Law Faculty and Women and Gender Studies Program, Tel Aviv University. Email: [email protected].
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper aims at contributing to the evolving debate over the rights of the dead by providing it with concrete empirical socio-legal context. A pioneering study of succession disputes, conducted in Israel, exposes a gap between a prominent judicial promise to respect the wishes and guard the dignity of the deceased testator, and the actual action taking place behind this rhetoric. The findings reveal that the testator's dignity and wishes are trampled during testamentary procedures, when demeaning allegations about his or her mental and physical competence are allowed, and personal and medical information is exposed, and when the judge approves settlements that diverge from the testator's last will in the name of familial reconciliation, even though in most cases there are no nuclear family ties between the rival parties. These findings are discussed in the light of an original typology mapping the theoretical controversies over posthumous rights, to highlight some of the possible normative implications of the project for the law on the books and law in action related to property division after death.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 40 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aviram, Hadar (2010) ‘Does the Law Achieve Its Goals? Answers from the Empirical Research Realm’, in Hacker, Daphna and Ziv, Neta (eds), Is Law Important? Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 27–61 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Barak, Aharon (2001) Interpretation in Law – The Interpretation of Wills. Jerusalem: Nevo Publishers [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Barak-Erez, Daphne (1994) ‘From an Unwritten to a Written Constitution: The Israeli Challenge in American Perspective’, Columbia Human Rights Law Review 26: 309–355.Google Scholar
Belliotti, Raymond A. (1979) ‘Do Dead Human Beings Have Rights?’ Personalist 60: 201–210.Google Scholar
Birnhack, Michael (2008) ‘The Rights of the Dead, the Freedom of the Living’, Tel Aviv Law Review 31(1): 57–114 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1987) ‘The Force of Law: Towards a Sociology of the Juridical Field’, Hastings Law Journal 38: 814–853.Google Scholar
Brecher, Bob (2002) ‘Our Obligation to the Dead’, Journal of Applied Philosophy 19(2): 109–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callahan, Joan C. (1987) ‘On Harming the Dead'’ Ethics 97(2): 341–352.Google Scholar
Chester, Ronald (2007) From Here to Eternity? Property and the Dead Hand. Lake Mary, FL: Vandeplas Publishing.Google Scholar
Corinaldi, Michael (2008) The Law of Succession, Wills, Succession and Probate. Tel-Aviv: Israel Bar-Publishing House [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Edrei, Arye (1998) ‘“To Fulfill the Wishes of the Deceased.” On the Validity of Wills in Rabbinical Literature’, Hebrew Union College Annual 65: 105–141 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Edrei, Arye (2004) ‘Atonement for the Deceased, A Legal Approach’, Mehkari Talmud VeMidrash, The Bialik Institute 1–28 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Englard, Izhak (1999) ‘Human Dignity: From Antiquity to Modern Israel's Constitutional Framework’, Cardozo Law Review 21: 1903–1928.Google Scholar
Feinberg, Joel (1977) ‘Harm and Self-Interest’, in Hacker, Peter Michael Stephan and Raz, Joseph (eds), Law, Morality and Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 285–308.Google Scholar
Feinberg, Joel (1984) The Moral Limits of Criminal Law: Harm to Others. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fellows, Mary Louise (2013) ‘Eighteenth-Century Moral Sentiments in Defense of Twenty-First Century Estate Tax: What Adam Smith and Jane Austen Can Teach Us’, in Brennan, David W., Brown, Karen B. and Jones, Darryll K. (eds), Beyond Economic Efficiency in United States Tax Law. New York: Kluwer Law & Business, 217–242.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. (2009) Dead Hands. Stanford: Stanford Law Books.Google Scholar
Fyfe, James (2007) ‘Dignity as Theory: Competing Conceptions of Human Dignity at the Supreme Court of Canada’, Saskachewan Law Review 70: 1–26.Google Scholar
Grover, Dorothy (1989) ‘Posthumous Harm’, Philosophical Quarterly 39(156): 334–353.Google Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2008) ‘A Legal Field in Action: The Case of Divorce Arrangements in Israel’, International Journal of Law in Context 4(1): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2010a) ‘Soulless Wills’, Law and Social Inquiry 35(4): 857–983.Google Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2010b) ‘The Gendered Dimensions of Inheritance: Empirical Food for Legal Thought’, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 7(2): 322–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2012) ‘Religious Tribunals in Democratic States: Lesson from the Israeli Rabbinical Courts’, Journal of Law and Religion 27(1): 59–82.Google Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2014a) ‘Disappointed “Heirs” as a Socio-Legal Phenomenon’, Oñati Socio-Legal Series 4(2): 243–263.Google Scholar
Hacker, Daphna (2014b) ‘Intergenerational Wealth Transfer and the Need to Revive and Metamorphose the Israeli Estate Tax’, Law and Ethics of Human Rights 8(1): 59–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hashiloni-Dolev, Yael, Hacker, Daphna and Boaz, Hagai (2014) ‘The Will of the Dead – Three Case Studies’, Israeli Sociology 16(1): 31–53 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy (2010) Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Kamir, Orit (2002) ‘Honor and Dignity Cultures: The Case of KAVOD and KVOD HA-ADAM in Israeli Society and Law’, in Kretzmer, David and Klein, Eckart (eds), The Concept of Human Dignity in Human Rights Discourse. Amsterdam: Kluwer Press, 231–262.Google Scholar
Karp, Judith (1995) ‘A Few Questions on Human Dignity According to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom’, Hebrew University Law Review 25: 129–159 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Korgaard, Christine M. (1996) Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kramer, Mattre H. (2001) ‘Do Animals and Dead People Have Legal Rights?’, Canadian. Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 14(1): 29–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, Shelly Kreiczer (2008) The Intergenerational Bond – Rethinking Inheritance. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Levy, Shelly Kreiczer and Pinto, Meital (2012) ‘Property and Belongingness: Rethinking Gender-Bias Disinheritance’, Texas Journal of Women and the Law 21(1): 120–152.Google Scholar
Madoff, Ray D. (n.d.) ‘Can the Dead be Harmed? Insights from Two Thousand Years of Philosophy’, unpublished manuscript, on file with author.Google Scholar
Madoff, Ray D. (2010) Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mcguinness, Sheelagh and Brazier, Margaret (2008) ‘Respecting the Living Means Respecting the Dead Too’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 28(2): 297–316.Google Scholar
Meltzer Henry, Leslie (2011–2012) ‘The Jurisprudence of Dignity’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review 160: 169–233.Google Scholar
Meyer, Michael J. (1995) ‘Dignity, Death and Modern Virtue’, American Philosophical Quarterly 32(1): 45–55.Google Scholar
Murthy, Veena K. (1997–98) ‘Undue Influence and Gender Stereotypes: Legal Doctrine or Indoctrination?’, Cardozo Women's Law Journal 4: 105–135.Google Scholar
Partridge, Ernest (1981) ‘Posthumous Interests and Posthumous Respect’, Ethics 91(2): 243–264.Google Scholar
Pitcher, George (1984) ‘The Misfortunes of the Dead’, American Philosophical Quarterly 21(2): 183–188.Google Scholar
Rakover, Menachem (1962) ‘On Slander and Its Punishment in Jewish Law’, online: <http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/kitveyet/sinay/allashon1-4.htm> [in Hebrew].+[in+Hebrew].>Google Scholar
Schoenblum, Jeffrey A. (1987) ‘Will Contests – An Empirical Study’, Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal 22: 607–660.Google Scholar
Shulztiner, Doron and Carmi, Guy E. (2014). ‘Human Dignity in National Constitutions: Functions, Promises and Dangers’, American Journal of Comparative Law 62: 461–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smolensky, Kristen Rabe (2009) ‘Rights of the Dead’, Arizona Legal Discussion Paper, 06-27.Google Scholar
Sperling, Daniel (2008) Posthumous Interests: Legal and Ethical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, James Stacy (2005) ‘The Myth of Posthumous Harm’, American Philosophical Quarterly 42(4): 311–322.Google Scholar
Tenenbaum, Abraham (2003) ‘On the Proper Status of Hebrew Law’, Sharei Mishpat Law Review 3(2): 393–423 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Tikochinsky, Yechiel Michal (1947) The Bridge of Life, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: n.p. [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Tikochinsky, Yechiel Michal (1960) The Bridge of Life, Vol. 3. Jerusalem: n.p. [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy (2013) ‘Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?’, New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers. Paper 374, online: <http://lsr.nellco.org/nyu_plltwp/374>..>Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. M. (2009) ‘Daniel Sperling, Posthumous Interests: Legal and Ethical Perspectives’, Journal of Value Inquiry 43: 531–535.Google Scholar
Winter, Stephen (2010) ‘Against Posthumous Rights’, Journal of Applied Philosophy 27(2): 186–199.Google Scholar