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The Wills and Administration of Testate Estates Act 1989 and The Intestate Succession Act 1989 of Zambia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
After conducting research into the customary law of succession and considering the various arguments for and against reforming succession law, in 1982 the Law Development Commission published a report which favoured reform and which contained a draft bill dealing with testate and intestate succession, and with family provision. Now two laws have been enacted, the one governing wills and the administration of testate estates, the other governing intestacy and the administration of intestate estates. Although there are obvious similarities between the draft bill and the new laws, there are also significant differences. It is not only that the draft bill did not deal with the administration of estates, but that several of its key provisions relating to wills and intestacy have been modified or abandoned.
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- Statute Notes
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- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1989
References
1 Report on the Law of Succession (Government Printer, Lusaka, 1982)Google Scholar. For a comment on the report and the draft bill, see Coldham, S. F. R., “The Law of Succession in Zambia: recent proposals for reform”, [1983] J.A.L. 162.Google Scholar
2 Cf. the much broader definition of “dependant” in the Law of Succession Act 1972 of Kenya and the Wills and Inheritance Act 1967 of Malawi.
3 These provisions, taken from the Law Development Commission's draft bill, ignore the fact that whereas under the bill only spouses and children maintained by the testator immediately prior to his death could apply, the Act contains no such limitation. It is a case of faulty draftsmanship, but unlikely to be important in practice.
4 The reasons for restricting its application in this way is not clear. Cf. Kenya where a uniform code of intestate succession was introduced and Malawi which, while retaining a plural system of succession, took the opportunity to update the intestacy law applicable to non-Africans.
5 The Act does provide, however, that the age and educational needs of the children should be taken into account when dividing the children's entitlement.