Let's Get Serious: Spousal Abuse Should Be a Complete Bar to Inheritance

carla spivack, oklahoma city university

Abstract

Essentially, the thesis of the article is that a spouse or intimate partner who is found to have committed domestic violence should not be permitted to inherit from the victim. Surprisingly, this is an idea that has seldom been explored in detail in the academic literature. No prior article, to my knowledge, has ever proposed a complete bar to inheritance in these circumstances. Moreover, the few articles that have considered a partial ban have generally done so in passing, without properly situating the proposal in the context of inheritance law in general and fault-based inheritance regimes in particular.

This article fills this gap in scholarship: justifying a bar on inheritance as a systemic approach to domestic violence as well as an important use of the law’s expressive function. I demonstrate the inadequacies of current will contest law, address concerns some might raise about respect for the testator’s intent and the stereotyping of battered women, outline procedural and evidentiary details of the proposal, and conclude by offering a draft statute