Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. In legal terms, succession is the process by which a deceased person's rights and property are transferred to their heirs, while inheritance is the property or assets those heirs receive. Succession may occur either under the generally applicable statutory rules, referred to as intestate succession, or in accordance with the provisions outlined in a valid will. A will often must be attested by a notary or by other lawful means to be valid. Legal systems can differ significantly in how property passes from a deceased person to their heirs, with common law jurisdictions typically requiring formal probate procedures, while civil law systems often allow heirs to acquire ownership automatically by operation of law - the principle of saisine or seizin (Quebec).
Terminology In law, an heir (fem (obs): heiress) is a person who is entitled to receive a share of property from a decedent (a person who died), subject to the rules of inheritance in the jurisdiction where the decedent was a citizen, or where the decedent died or owned property at the time of death. The inheritance may be either under the terms of a will or by intestacy laws if the deceased had no will. However, the will must comply with the laws of the jurisdiction at the time it was created, or it will be declared invalid - for example, some states do not recognise handwritten wills as valid, or only in specific circumstances - and the intestacy laws then apply. The exclusion from inheritance of a person who was an heir in a previous will, or would be expected to inherit under the laws of intestate succession, is termed disinheritance. A person does not become an heir before the death of the deceased, since the exact identity of the persons entitled to inherit is determined only then. Members of ruling noble or royal houses who are expected to become heirs are called heirs apparent if first in line and incapable of being displaced from inheriting by another claim; otherwise, they are heirs presumptive. There is a further concept of joint inheritance, pending renunciation by all but one, which is called coparceny. In modern law, the terms ‘'inheritance'’ and '‘heir’' apply only to property passed by intestate succession – that is, from a person who dies without a will. Property distributed under a will passes to beneficiaries, who may be called devisees for real property, legatees for money, and recipients of bequests for other personal property. Except in some jurisdictions where a person cannot be legally disinherited (such as the US state of Louisiana, which allows disinheritance only under specifically enumerated circumstances), a person who would otherwise be an heir may be disinherited completely under the terms of a will (an example is that of the will of comedian Jerry Lewis; his will specifically disinherited his six children by his first wife, and their descendants, leaving his entire estate to his second wife). Inheritance has been compared to nepotism.
History
Detailed anthropological and sociological studies have been conducted on customs of patrimonial inheritance, in which only male children can inherit. Some cultures also employ matrilineal succession, where property can only pass along the female line, most commonly to the decedent's sister's sons, but also, in some societies, to the mother and her daughters. Some ancient societies and most modern states employ egalitarian inheritance, without discrimination based on gender and/or birth order.
Religious laws about inheritance
Jewish laws The inheritance is patrimonial. The father —that is, the owner of the land— bequeaths only to his male descendants. According to the Law of Moses, the firstborn son was entitled to receive twice as much of his father's inheritance as the other sons (Deuteronomy 21:15–17). If there were no living sons and no descendants of any previously living sons, daughters inherit. In Numbers 27, the five daughters of Zelophehad come to Moses and ask for their father's inheritance, as they have no brothers. The order of inheritance is set out: a man's sons inherit first, daughters if no sons, brothers if he has no children, and so on. Later, in Numbers 36, some of the heads of the families of the tribe of Manasseh come to Moses and point out that if a daughter inherits and then marries a man not from her paternal tribe, her land will pass from her birth tribe's inheritance into her marriage tribe's. So a further rule is laid down: if a daughter inherits land, she must marry someone within her father's tribe. (The daughters of Zelophehad marry the sons of their father's brothers. There is no indication that this was not their choice.) The laws of Jewish inheritance are discussed in the Talmud, in the Mishneh Torah and by Saadiah ben Joseph among other sources. Philo of Alexandria and Josephus also comment on the Jewish laws of inheritance, praising them above other law codes of their time. They also agreed that the firstborn son must receive a double portion of his father's estate.
Christian laws At first, Christianity did not have its own inheritance traditions distinct from Judaism. With the accession of Emperor Constantine in 306, Christians began to distance themselves from Judaism and to exert influence over the laws and practices of secular institutions. From the beginning, this included inheritance. The Roman practice of adoption was a specific target because it was perceived as in conflict with the Judeo-Christian doctrine of primogeniture. As Stephanie Coontz documents in Marriage, a History (Penguin, 2006), not only succession but the whole constellation of rights and practices that included marriage, adoption, legitimacy, consanguinity, and inheritance changed in Western Europe from a Greco-Roman model to a Judeo-Christian pattern, based on Biblical and traditional Judeo-Christian principles. The transformation was essentially complete in the Middle Ages, although in English-speaking countries there was additional development under the influence of Protestantism. Even when Europe became secularized and Christianity faded into the background, the legal foundation Christendom had laid remained. Only in the era of modern jurisprudence have there been significant changes.
Islamic laws
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