Life and Death in Private Law

A fascinating study of how life and death shape private law and conversely how private law’s engagement with life and death illustrates their meaning and value.

Private law regulates life; this is self-evident, but how does it regulate death? This edited collection explores this question.

Life and death are the beginning and end of the legal person: the instigator and terminator of rights, interests and obligations. They are also the nominal separator of particular fields of law (medical law from succession law, for example). As such they act as fault lines that can test the limit of private law principles and norms. This book explores what life and death tell us about private law and what private law can tell us about the meaning and value of life and death.