Property (Wills and Other Donative Transfers)
This work is a culmination of ALI’s 20-year project to update the law of wills and succession. It is a comprehensive treatment of the American law of wills, will substitutes, intestacy, gifts, powers of appointment, present and future interests, and the construction of donative documents. The coverage includes subjects in the Restatement of Property and the Restatement Second of Property (Donative Transfers), both of which are now superseded.
Official Text Volume 1 (Hardbound)
This volume offers a comprehensive treatment of the law of probate transfers by wills and by intestacy, articulating rules for probate transfers that seek to give effect to the donor’s intentions while providing safeguards against the defeat of those intentions by fraud or mistake. Subjects covered include definitions and basic principles, intestacy, will formalities, the harmless-error rule, revocation of wills, revival of revoked wills, and post-execution events affecting wills, including ademption and lapse.
Official Text Volume 2 (Hardbound)
This volume begins by restating the law of nonprobate transfers such as gifts and will substitutes. It continues with a consideration of protective doctrines such as mental incapacity, minority, and undue influence, as well as of protection for surviving spouses and of premarital and marital agreements. Mortmain is abolished. The final unit covers construction, reformation and modification of donative documents.
Official Text Volume 3 (Hardbound)
This volume takes up class gifts, powers of appointment, present and future interests, and perpetuities. It includes provisions that modernize and simplify the law of future interests, class-gift rules that respond to the legal problems arising from recent scientific developments in reproductive technology, a simplified formulation of the rule against perpetuities, and a clear and principled explanation of the reasons for limiting dead-hand control of property.