Kathryn Purkis provides a comparative view of family provision in the British Isles
- The different countries of the British Isles have varied approaches to mitigating capricious or unfair wills. Scotland and Jersey are thinking about the fairness and workability of their forced heirship arrangements, but neither has an appetite for throwing these away in favour of English-style statutory provision.
Some legal questions engender a single clear answer, others are more nuanced. What is the optimal arrangement for family provision when a will cuts out close kith and kin? This is a minority concern—because about two-thirds of people across the UK die intestate—but it is still important. The issue is currently being discussed in Jersey and Scotland, both of which have systems of forced heirship. There is limited appetite there to adopt the English solution.
Context
These days, many English and Welsh lawyers think of freedom of testation as a hallmark of a free and liberal society, and cannot imagine how things could be otherwise in their jurisdiction. But they used to be:
