Fred O Smith Jr, ‘On Time, (In)equality, and Death’, 120 Michigan Law Review 195 (2021). Fred O Smith Jr’s compelling new article, ‘On Time, (In)equality, and Death’, is a remarkable inquiry that delves into the posthumous rights of individuals and the risks of subordination that persist even beyond death. Smith identifies ‘four long-standing “rights” after death’ – bodily integrity, dignified interment, protection against undignified disturbance once interred, and control over the disposition of one’s property – and subsequently analyzes the potential that inheres in each category for posthumous subordination. These risks overlap with and undergird each other, discrimination compounding dispossession, but Smith identifies four main mechanisms and details how reliance on these mechanisms increases the likelihood of posthumous subordination … (more)
[Allison Anna Tait, JOTWELL, 2 March]
First posted 2022-03-03 08:00:17
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