Enduring Love? Attitudes to Family and Inheritance Law in England and Wales
| Author | Hilary Woodward,Gareth Morrell,Lisa Mills,Alun Humphrey,Gillian Douglas |
| Date | 01 June 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2011.00542.x |
| Published date | 01 June 2011 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2, JUNE 2011
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 245±71
Enduring Love? Attitudes to Family and Inheritance Law in
England and Wales
Gillian Douglas,* Hilary Woodward,* Alun Humphrey,**
Lisa Mills,** and Gareth Morrell**
This paper reports on the findings from a large-scale study of public
attitudes to inheritance law, particularly the rules on intestacy. It
argues that far from the assumption that the `family' is in terminal
decline, people in England and Wales still view their most important
relationships, at least for the purposes of inheritance law, as centred
on a narrow, nuclear family model. However, there is also widespread
acceptance of re-partnering and cohabitation, producing generally
high levels of support for including cohabitants in the intestacy rules
and for ensuring that children from former relationships are protected.
We argue that these views are underpinned by a continuing sense of
responsibility to the members of one's nuclear family, arising from
notions of sharing and commitment, dependency and support, and a
sense of lineage.
INTRODUCTION
Should more attention be paid to all the lifestyles and types of relationship
that are developing outside what has traditionally counted as a normal family?
And where these forms assertively demand recognition and equal
consideration ± for example, in the law of inheritance . . . ± should their
claims be granted?
1
245
ß2011 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2011 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing
Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
*Cardiff Law School, Cardiff University, Law Building, Museum Ave.,
Cardiff CF10 3AX, Wales
DouglasG@cf.ac.uk
** National Centre for Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London
EC1V 0AX, England
1 E. Beck-Gernsheim, Reinventing the Family: In Search of New Lifestyles (2002) 7.
In this article, we present findings from a recent empirical study
2
which was
conducted to provide up to date information for the Law Commission on
attitudes to inheritance law, for their review of the law of intestacy and
family provision. We draw on these findings to consider how people are
constructing their notions of `family' after fifty years of rapid social and
cultural change which have seen major shifts in attitudes and behaviour in
relation to partnering and parenting. We argue that decisions about inherit-
ance require people to reflect on who in their lives is of most importance to
them and represent a material, concrete expression of their sense of love and
obligation. We suggest that, in the light of our findings, and contrary to what
one might expect, given the political and cultural preoccupation with the
supposed collapse of traditional family norms, these remain focused on the
nearest and dearest within their nuclear family structure, suggesting that
Beck-Gernsheim's `post-familial family'
3
looks remarkably like that which
it has supposedly replaced.
In presenting our findings, we draw on three strands of thinking about
family ties. First, we consider notions of kinship, as explained by Janet Finch
and her colleagues, who have also explored the values and ideas that lie
behind decisions on inheritance.
4
As they note:
When people make decisions about whether and to whom to pass their
property when they die, or what to do with something they have inherited, they
are in the business of constituting kinship, not just reflecting it.
5
However, as Finch and Mason also point out,
6
for the purposes of inherit-
ance, people's ideas of who are sufficiently significant to be left property on
a death in fact turn out not to range very broadly beyond the narrow nuclear
model of partner and children, parents and siblings, and grandchildren.
Equally, in so far as it has been suggested that people may be seen as having
a `personal community' ± `a specific subset of people's informal social
relationships . . . [which] represent people's significant personal relationships
and include bonds which give both structure and meaning to their lives',
7
246
2 A. Humphrey, L. Mills, G. Morrell, G. Douglas, and H. Woodward, Inheritance and
the Family: Attitudes to Will-Making and Intestacy (2010), funded by the Nuffield
Foundation.
3 Beck-Gernsheim, op. cit., n. 1, p. 8: `the negotiated family, the alternating family, the
multiple family, new arrangements after divorce, remarriage, divorce again, new
assortments from you, my, our children, our past and present families.'
4 J. Finch, L. Hayes, J. Mason, J. Masson, and L. Wallis, Wills, Inheritance and
Families (1996); J. Finch and J. Mason, Passing On: Kinship and Inheritance in
England (2000).
5 Finch and Mason, id., p. 162. This is not the only significance of will-making. For
another perspective, see C. Frank, Law, Literature, and the Transmission of Culture in
England, 1837±1925 (2010) ch. 1, who sees the will as an expression and assertion of
one's own identity.
6 Finch and Mason, id., p. 31.
7 L. Spencer and R. Pahl, Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today (2006) 45.
ß2011 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2011 Cardiff University Law School
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