Unit information: Succession in 2011/12

Unit name	Succession
Unit code	LAWD30041
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Emeritus Professor. Roger Kerridge
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None -
Co-requisites	None
School/department	University of Bristol Law School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

The Law of Succession is concerned with how a person's property is distributed on his/her death. It comprises:

1. Intestacy (total and partial).
2. Making a will (formalities).
3. Making a will (the testator's mental capacity).
4. Wills made in suspicious circumstances (wills made by beneficiaries).
5. Rectification and interpretation of wills.
6. Secret trusts, mutual wills, donationes mortis causa and proprietary estoppel.
7. Failure of testamentary gifts, including ademption, abatement, lapse, killing by a beneficiary and divorce.
8. Revocation and alteration of wills.
9. Family provision.
10. Reform, in particular, reform of intestacy and of the family provision rules.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit, a successful student should be able to explain: (a) the operation of the intestacy rules: (b) the formality rules applicable to wills: (c) the mental capacity required for the making of a will, and the rules applicable to conditional wills: (d) statutory wills: (e) how wills may be challenged where there is a suspicion of undue influence or fraud: (f) the recification and interpretation of wills: (g) the rules applicable to proprietary estoppel, to secret trusts, to mutual wills and to donationes mortis causa: (h) how wills may fail, by ademption, by lapse, as a result of divorce or separation, where the deceased has been killed by a beneficiary and where a benfiiciary has witnessed the will: (i) revocation by marriage, by destruction or by a later will or codicil: (j) dependent relative revocation: (k) what happens where a will has been altered; (l) the family provision rules, who may apply for family provision and the guidelines for so applying. Students should be able to state the law accurately, to apply legal principles to problem case scenarios.

Teaching Information

10 Seminars

Assessment Information

One three hour closed book examination in May/June, in which students answer 3 questions from a choice of 6 or 7 questions.

Reading and References

Parry & Kerridge, The Law of Succession, plus cases, articles and Reports as set out in the Seminar Reading List