Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Pitts, Yvonne (1969-....)
Titre(s) : Family, law, and inheritance in America [Texte imprimé] : a social and legal history of nineteenth-century Kentucky / Yvonne Pitts
Publication : Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013
Description matérielle : xiii, 203 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Collection : Cambridge historical studies in American law and society
Lien à la collection : Cambridge historical studies in American law and society
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-200) and index
"Yvonne Pitts explores inheritance practices by focusing on nineteenth-century testamentary
capacity trials in Kentucky in which disinherited family members challenged relatives'
wills. These disappointed heirs claimed that their departed relative lacked the capacity
required to write a valid will. These inheritance disputes criss-crossed a variety
of legal and cultural terrains, including ordinary people's understandings of what
constituted insanity and justice, medical experts' attempts to infuse law with science,
and the independence claims of women. Pitts uncovers the contradictions in the body
of law that explicitly protected free will while simultaneously reinforcing the primacy
of blood in mediating claims to inherited property. By anchoring the study in local
communities and the texts of elite jurists, Pitts demonstrates that 'capacity' was
a term laden with legal meaning and competing communal values about family, race relations
and rationality. These concepts evolved as Kentucky transitioned from a conflicted
border state with slaves to a developing free-labor, industrializing economy"
Sujet(s) : Successions et héritages -- Kentucky (États-Unis) -- 19e siècle
Testaments -- Kentucky (États-Unis) -- 19e siècle
Indice(s) Dewey :
346.052 (23e éd.) = Héritages et successions (droit)
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9781107035508. - ISBN 1107035503
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb45695732t
Notice n° :
FRBNF45695732
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : 1. 'Parental justice': inheritance and obligation in families ; 2. 'My black family':
manumissions and freedom in inheritance disputes ; 3. Arbiters of sanity: medical
experts and jurists ; 4. Physical impairments and degenerate minds: the body as evidence
; 5. A special power: women's testamentary capacity.
