Rights After Death

Catalog description

This seminar examines how the law navigates the complex terrain of posthumous interests--the rights, claims, and protections that survive death or emerge after it. Drawing from diverse legal domains including civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law, property, torts, and historic preservation, we will explore fundamental questions about the boundaries of legal personhood, human dignity, and the reach of the law beyond life. The course investigates core tensions in posthumous rights: When do the dead's expressed wishes control legal outcomes, and when must they yield to competing interests or basic principles of human dignity? Who has standing to speak for the deceased, and what limits constrain such representation? How do courts balance respect for the dead against the needs and rights of the living? Special attention will be given to questions of inequality and subordination after death, exploring how legal protections may vary based on social status, wealth, or marginalized identity. The seminar integrates doctrinal analysis with philosophical inquiry, engaging questions about the nature of posthumous harm, dignity, legacy and respect. Students will grapple with whether and why the dead can be wronged, how the law should mediate between competing claims to posthumous authority, and what our treatment of the dead reveals about the values and limits of legal systems. Elements used in grading: Attendance, class participation, written assignments, final paper.