Analysis of the Law of Will

Analysis of the Law of Will When a person dies leaving their property, the question will definitely arise as to how his or her property or estate will be dealt by those who survived them. Intestacy rules[1] applies when a person dies without leaving will but makes no provision for cohabitants and their children and friends. The law of wills are more favourable which allows a person to write a will that authorize their estate to be distributed according to their own wishes. Besides being able to specify own funeral arrangement and notify guardianship of the next kin, a will can also help to reduce the amount of Inheritance Tax that may be payable on the value of the property one leave behind. A will must be valid and can only run after the death of the testator or testatrix. A testator must be over the age of 18 and have a necessary capacity[2], with capacityÂÂ   being defined as being of sound mind, memory and understand the extent of the property of which he is disposing[3] to write a will. Thus a blind person cannot be a witness.[4] Surprisingly in Wilson v Beddard,[5] a 14 years old boy was given the importance of witnesses in the will-making process. It could be argued that no particular maturity of years is required to witness a signature but that undervalue the function of the witness.[6] Borkowski in his opinion thinks that the requirement that witnesses to wills should be of adult age. It is also important for testator to comply with the requirements under section 9 of the Wills Act 1837[7] in order to make a valid will. One advantage of this is formality of writing can prevents fraud. Over the time, courts have adopted a very broad approach towards this requirement. Wills written in bad Ukrainian have been accepted by the courts in Re Slavinskyjs Estate[8] case, will written on an eggshell[9] or even in the code used by jeweller in the course of his business were accepted by the courts.[10] The courts approach appears to accept anything that is a written manifestation of the testators intentions concerning the disposition of his or her estate on the death may be regarded as a will.[11] Second requirement being a will must be signed with an intention to give effect to the will. The courts have accepted any mark or marks intended to represent a signature in Re Savory (1851)[12] case. In Re Stalman[13] the will was written on a single piece of paper and the testatrix signed at the top of the paper. The Court of Appeal held that the signature was ineffective and the will invalid. The leading case, In the Goods of Chalcraft [1948][14] where the testatrix was extremely in pain and frail, she was given the will she drafted to sign, but could only able to complete E. Chal rather than E. Chalcraft before lapsing into unconsciousness and died. Willmer J. thought that Lord Campbells words should be given a broad interpretation and that, in the circumstances, the will was validly signed because what she wrote was intended by her to be the best that she could for by way of writing her name. Contrast with a more uprightly flexible interpretation by Lord Campbell LC in Hindmarsh v Charlton (1861)[15] stated that there must either be the name or some mark which is intended to represent the name. Although this was an understandable decision on the facts, the test applied by Willmer J. was not supported by other authority and is, in any case, open to the objection that it is too vague and imprecise.[16] The judge attached essence to the fact that the testator complete his signature after the nurse left the room. His reasoning appears to have been that writing part of a name cannot amount to a signature where the testator goes on to complete the signature. The problem with this approach is that it imposes an unduly narrow meaning on signature by equating it with completed signature. These difficulties can be prevented by taking a wider approach of the meaning of a mark while focusing on the intention of the testator. The requirement of presence is an important one as in section 9, which signature must wither be made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses and the witness must attest and sign or acknowledge his or her signature in the presence of the testator. The case of Brown v Skirrow [1902][17] demonstrates that the element of presence means both mental and physical presence. As regards mental presence, the testator and the witnesses must be aware and mindful of the act done. Nevertheless, the cases on physical presence has raised the odd rule that it is sufficient if there was a line of sight at the relevant moment. For instance, it is sufficient for testator to see the witnesses signing, even if the testator did not look at what they were doing at that moment. There is obvious potential for fraud and undue influence in such a case although these possibilities may seem to contradict by the insistence on the testators direction, they cannot be depreciated. The line of sight test cannot be critically defended. In Langbein seminal article, Substantial Compliance with the Wills Act,[18] he argued that formalities had four main functions in will-making in which requiring the presence of the participants to the making of a will arguably serves all these purposes, especially the cautionary and the protective functions: it attracts attention to the importance of the matter and supply vital checks that the statutory requirements are being achieved. Section 9(1)[19] allows some other person to sign on behalf of the testator providing this is done in the presence and by the direction of the testator. The main reason for this provision was to provide for the case of the illiterate testator, but the leading aim now must be to help the testator who cannot sign because of illness or disability although he must be at least capable of giving direction. As it is, there would appear to be nothing to invalidate a will signed by some other person on behalf of a perfectly fit testator. Borkowski[20] suggested to amend the relevant part of section 9(1) to read or by some other person in his presence and by his direction where the testator is unable to sign the will because of illness or disability. Borkowski also argues that the number of witnesses should be increased. Two witnesses could easily be so intimately connected as to be able to collude in their evidence as may be the situation with the friendly couple next door.[21] The failure to date a will will not make a will invalid as there is no statutory requirement for a will to be dated. Waite LJ stated in Corbett v Newey[22]: Lack of a date or the inclusion of the wrong date cannot invalidate a will.[23] However, dating a will convenience judges to decide issues concerning the testators capacity to produce a will. Besides, interpretation of a will such as references to persons and property can depend on the date of execution.[24] Moreover, testator might leave more than one will thus the date of the will will be used to determine the order of execution. On 22 January 2014, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Marley v Rawlings.[25] One of the issue arise is rectifying a will under section 20 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982[26] which was introduced on the recommendations of the Law Reform Committee.[27] Under this provision, a will is rectifiable but in Marley case, the respondents argues that the physical mix-up of the documents meant that Mr Rawling had not signed a will for the purpose of section 20. Since section 9 of the Wills Act[28] require a will to be signed in order to be valid, it was argued that this will had not being signed by the testator and therefore no intention to give effect to the said provisions. As Lord Neuberger PSC said, it is logical to deal with the validity and rectification issues together, at least in a case such as this, where the two issues are so closely related.[29] In conclusion, the law of will should be reformed to make a clearer and distinct rules as they are used by majority and for vital task such as wealth distribution upon death. Good news is that the Law Commission announced on 23 July 2014 that it expects to start its project on the reform of the law of wills in early 2015 with a view to publishing a report with final recommendations and a draft Bill in early 2018.[30] Borkowskis recommendations for section 9 of the 1837 act would probably results in more failure in will, prima facie, but would also save some application of a dispensing power. However, it is obvious that the Parliament is putting efforts in improving the law of will. [1] Administration of Estates Act 1925, s 46 [2] Wills Act 1837, s 7 [3] Sir Alexander Cockburn CJ in Banks v Goodfellow (1870) LR 5 QB 549 at p.564 [4] Re Gibson [1949] P. 434 [5] Wilson v Beddard (1841) 12 Sim. 28, 59 E.R. 1041 [6] Andrew Borkowski, Reforming section 9 of the Wills Act (Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 2000) [7] Wills Act 1837, s 9 [8] Re Slavinskyjs Estate [1989] 53 SASR 221 [9] Hodson v Barnes (1926) 43 TLR 71 [10] Kell v Charmer (1856) 23 BEAV. 196 [11] Catrin Fflur Huws, Text, Cases and Materials on Equity and Trusts (1st edn Pearson 2015) p.369 [12] Re Savory (1851) 15 Jur 1042 [13] Re Stalman (1931) 145 LT 339 [14] In the Goods of Chalcraft [1948] 1 All ER 703 [15] (1861) 8 HL Cas. 160, 167 [16] Andrew Borkowski, Reforming section 9 of the Wills Act (Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 2000) [17] [1902] P 3 [18] John Harriss Langbein, Substantial Compliance with the Wills Act (88 Harvard Law Review 489, 1975) [19] Wills Act 1837, s 9(1) [20] Andrew Borkowski, Reforming section 9 of the Wills Act (Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 2000) [21] ibid [22] Corbett v Newey [1996] 2 All E.R. 914 [23] Waite LJ in Corbett v Newey [1996] 2 All E.R. 914 at p.920 [24] Re Whorwood (1887) 34 Ch D 446 [25] [2014] UKSC 2 [26] Administration of Justice Act 1982, s 20 [27] Law Reform Committee, Interpretation of Wills 19th Report (HMSO, 1973). Cmnd.5301 [28] Wills Act 1837, s 9 [29] Marley v Rawlings [2014] UKSC 2; [2014] 2 W.L.R. 213 at p63 [30] Law Commission, Wills: Current Project Status http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/wills/> accessed on 5 March 2017

Impact of Christianity On The Roman Culture :: essays research papers

Christianity came into the world approximately two thousand years ago. It was persecuted at first, but atually became the offical religion in 381 A.D. "It is the spiritual force that conquered the Roman Empire; one of the decisive elements in the growth of Western civiliztion (Bunson 9). Throughout history Christianity has played a major role in changing our society into what it is today. "Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the population of the Roman Empire and even the support of the Roman State (Latourette 65). Not only did Christianity thrive, but it also succeeded in changing the face of Roman culture. Consider the gladiatorial fights. "The huge Coliseum at Rome seated 50 thousand people and was the scene of many bloody gladiatorial combats and even mock naval battles" (Schoder 108). "Hundreds of thousands of slaves shed their blood in the arena in Rome year after year to satisfy the perverted lust of the Roman mob" (Kennedy 148). "Although many Romans descried these blook-letting contests, there persisted a streak of cruelty in Roman public amusements which can scarcely be comprehended, far less condoned, today (81). The message of Christianity helped changed this aspect of Roman life because it gave worth and significance every life (Kennedy 149). Jesus told the multitudes to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27) He also told the story of the good summaritan to illistrate that any person he came in contact with was his good neighbor (Luke 10:30-37). Christianities message contains the golden rule "do to others as you you have them do to you" (Luke 6-3)."The child of today is loved and adored. But it was not so in pre-Christian times. The Roman father’s power of his child was absolute. "He could expose it to death; he could scourge it, mutilate it, marry it, divorce it, see it as a slave, or kill it to satisfy his own blood lust." Quintillion, a roman writer, said that to kill a man was often held to be a crime, but to kill one’s own children was sometimes considered a beautiful action (Kennedy 149). The message of Christianity gave value to children. Jeasus said "who ever humbles himself like this child is greatest in my kingdom. If anyone causes these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone around his neck and be drowned in the Sea (Matt 18:4-6).

Equal Opportunities for Women’s Career

Women often experience male dominated barriers when they seek to rise to the top of organization ranks. Despite the moves that have been made for equal opportunity employment, men and women that start in the same job often are not paid equally, and do not advance at the same rate. In a male dominated business world, the women are seen as weaker, less intelligent, passive, fragile, with a lack of commitment to their career often because of family obligations. Managers often form alliances with those that tend to have the same background and lifestyle as themselves, since women are seen as different they cannot bond with those upper level managers and often get overlooked when new management positions are open. (Maume p. 483) The glass-ceiling is the lack of mobility for women in careers, due to prejudices against women†s ability to perform as well as men. Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, known as the Glass Ceiling act, established the glass ceiling commission to study and make recommendations about eliminating the barriers and to create opportunities to advance women and minorities. If men hold the higher positions, choosing who is most suitable for promotion it is likely that women will remain in the minority with power positions. Women often move into male jobs either because market conditions force employees to reach down into the labor queue to hire women or because men reevaluate and then vacate jobs. (Maume p. 483) Traditionally women are offer less opportunity for training than males, if women are not getting equal education for a company then it cannot simply be gender that may later cause poor performance in a higher management position. Training is often expensive, since companies as a whole feel that women are more concerned with family priorities they offer it to those they believe will stay the longest and in their (male) minds be most attentive, the men. Studies show that after 12 years 56% of white men will be waiting for promotions with 44% already advanced, while 85% of white women and 93% of black women will remain waiting for a promotion. Maume p483) Some men often feel that the glass ceiling does simply not exist and that women†s over all performance has been causing the divide in distribution of power. One example of this view is an article that was printed in Men†s Health magazine, although this is not scholarly it provided insight to the propaganda that is kept alive by men to other men. The article was titled â€Å"The Glass Ceiling has been shattered† and went on to describe that women were simply inferior in management positions. The writer Jeffrey Csatari believes that men did not build the glass ceiling. It was built by women†s poor performance, he sighted a study in the University of Minnesota that found female managers tend to hire timid and self effacing employees with no corporate potential, as opposed to male counterparts who hired self assertive and competent employees. (Csatari p. 43) This article was published in a national men†s magazine, with no mention about the training level of the managers studied, it may be variables in the training they were provided or job experiece rather than gender that caused the differences in employee choice. Men made the study standard, which made the test biased since men were writing the rules of which employee would be successful and which would fail, perhaps women do not simply make decisions on what is said but are closely attentive to body language as well. The economist Solomon Polachek holds a hypothesis that each occupation has a rate of atrophy that job skills depreciate with lack of use. Earnings power declines at atrophy, therefore if women plan to participate inconsistantly in the labor market they would best benefit from jobs with low atrophy rates like teaching and service work. Duncan p. 479) These jobs are often classified as women†s jobs, which have a traditionally lower starting salary than male jobs. If the view that Mr. Polachek holds were universal than it would make advancement for women almost impossible if they planned to have families and take off work for any period of time. Differences in male and female preferences in jobs do exist however and can account for some of the inequality in the business world. The Hawthorne Studies of the 1930†³s and studies since have shown that women choose positions that are more meaningful, with positive social relations as opposed to males that choose careers on basis of income potential. (Tolbert p168) The traditional views of women as the supporting partner and the man as the primary earner have become barriers for women that would like to advance. Job desegregation does not yet exist wide spread however, there has been occupational desegregation. Women have been entering into traditionally male jobs in increasing numbers. When a job gets a majority of female occupants the occupation tends to become a female â€Å"ghetto† with the males moving on to higher paying positions within that field. (England p17) The government has passed laws but women as a whole have to strive to break the perceptions men hold of their abilities. The double duties of women at work along with their life after hours, with household duties along with childcare should be examples of the strength of women†s abilities not as just a weakness. The alternative that men would like to perpetuate is that women should be more like men. Women are responding to the challenge of the workplace, some are moving to the higher levels, but through much adversity. The choice of many women is to start their own businesses such as Mary Kay cosmetics, and Avon that is female dominated. The abilities of a person to succeed are not rooted in their gender but in the individual goals and knowledge. Women are typically being kept from the higher level positions by men that consider only other males their peers, and women as inferior. If women have to strive to be more like men to advance in business, does this mean that they are to stop producing children and forgo the family that males are entitled to in order to achieve the equality that they deserve. Hopefully, women will be able to achieve both career and family without having to sacrifice one for the other, or be seen as weak. The ability to be a mother is a sign of dedication, commitment, and strength not weakness, as males believe.

The Crossroad Of Christian Sin Versus Moral Vice - 2063 Words

The Crossroad of Christian Sin Versus Moral Vice One is not wicked solely on the basis that they perform wicked acts, just as one who sins is not always a sinner. Sin covers a wide range of behaviors; but if these behaviors become habits are they still sins? Augustine seemed to believe that sins, whether small or large, are committed when man turns away from God. Similar to sin, Aristotle frequented the discussion on vice, a state of excess or deficiency, with virtue being the middle ground. As he said, â€Å"We assume, then, that virtue is the sort of state that does the best actions concerning pleasures and pains, and that vice is the contrary state† (Irwin, p. 21, lines 28-29). He taught moral vice as different from vice, and having a direct correlation with incontinence. A type of incontinence is the exorbitant desire for bodily pleasures, such as sex. This form of incontinence is explored by Dante in Inferno and Purgatorio, Chaucer in Canterbury Tales, and Augustine in hi s Confessions in the form of lust, a topic that will be later expanded on. Incontinence is a lack of self-control, something man either has a predisposing for or not; to be incontinent is not a choice. This is where the disparity and intersection between moral vice and the Christian sin present themselves. Through the works and teachings of Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Dante Alighieri, and Geoffrey Chaucer the definitions and acts of both Christian sin and moral vice are explored in an attempt toShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesWanda Espana OB Poll Graphics: Electra Graphics Cover Art: honey comb and a bee working / Shutterstock / LilKar Sr. Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Full-Service Project Management: Christian Holdener, S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Pr inter/Binder: Courier/Kendallville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: 10.5/12 ITC New Baskerville Std Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other