Author: John Gorham (1999)

A Comparison of the English and Scottish Rules of Intestacy  Part I

John Gorham, MBA, FCIB, FTII, TEP The Royal Bank of Scotland plc
(From Issue 8, July 1999)

1 Introduction

1.1 The purpose of this article is to compare the intestacy rules of England and Scotland. England (with Wales) and Scotland have of course separate legal jurisdictions in spite of common membership of the United Kingdom and this is reflected in significant differences in their rules of succession, including devolution on intestacy.

The trend over the last few centuries has, arguably, been towards a convergence of the two constitutions but the advent of the Scottish parliament suggests a part reversal of that trend, in domestic affairs at least. What impact that might have on succession laws in general, and intestacy laws in particular, is considered briefly later (section 6.2).