Succession, Family Property and Representation Doctrines

Abatement of debts and legacies is a common law doctrine of wills that holds that when the equitable assets of a deceased person are not sufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate proportionately, and they must accept a dividend.

A deed of gift is a signed legal document that voluntarily and without recompense transfers ownership of real, personal, or intellectual property-such as a gift of materials-from one person or institution to another.

Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.

Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without a legally valid will, resulting in the distribution of their estate under statutory intestacy laws rather than by their expressed wishes.

In civil law and Roman law, the legitime (legitima portio), also known as a forced share or legal right share, of a decedent's estate is that portion of the estate from which they cannot disinherit their children, or their parents, without sufficient legal cause.

Matrimonial regimes, or marital property systems, are systems of property ownership between spouses providing for the creation or absence of a marital estate and if created, what properties are included in that estate, how and by whom it is managed, and how it will be divided and inherited at the end of the marriage.

In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative or legal personal representative is a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another person.