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Preface

_The Law Commission is undertaking the succession project with the approval of the Minister of Justice.

The purpose of the project is to review, reform and develop

• the Wills Act 1837 (UK),
• the Law Reform (Testamentary Promises) Act 1949,
• the Family Protection Act 1955,
• the Matrimonial Property Act 1963, and
• the Administration Act 1969.

The ultimate aim is to have new succession legislation drafted in plain language which

• provides for these matters in fewer statutes (these being either parts of, or instead of, the comprehensive succession statute envisaged in the original project reference),
• simplifies the law,
• enables better effect to be given to the intentions of will-makers, and
• takes account of the diversity of New Zealand families.

The project has three main aspects:

• Succession adjustment or testamentary claims – The subject of this report. The draft Succession (Adjustment) Act which this report recommends would repeal and replace the 1949, 1955, and 1963 Acts listed above.
• Succession as it applies to Mäori families – The Commission engaged Professor Pat Hohepa, Dr David Williams and Mrs Waerete Norman as consultants to advise on this aspect of the project: The Taking into Account of Te Ao Mäori in the Law of Succession: A Working Paper (nzlc mp6, 1996). The Commission is continuing to consult with Mäori at regional and national levels on ways that Mäori decisions about succession to ancestral property can be given greater effect.
• Wills – The Commission is giving further consideration to this aspect of the project with a view to proposing necessary reforms. Having reported a Succession (Homicide) Act earlier in 1997 (Succession Law: Homicidal Heirs (nzlc r38, 1997), the Commission anticipates that it will soon be in a position also to submit a report on a Succession (Wills) Act.

Our work on succession adjustment has been greatly helped by consultation with legal practitioners, legal academics, judges, social scientists and other specialists (see Acknowledgements). The Commission acknowledges here, however, two signal contributions to the work in this report, those of Richard Sutton, Professor of Law at the University of Otago/Te Whare Wänanga o Otago, former member of the Commission and original convening Commissioner for the Succession Project, and Ross Carter, a Commission researcher. We emphasise that the views expressed in this report are those of the Commission and not necessarily those of the people who have helped us. The draft Act provisions were prepared by Mr GC Thornton qc, the Commission’s legislative counsel.