To 'Will or not to 'Will'

Abstract

Law can be and indeed sometimes is used as an instrument of social engineering. Societal ideas, which are seriously in arrears of socio-economic dynamics, can be legislated away; whether successfully or not is another issue. Such a step becomes even more compelling and pertinent when society itself articulates certain values and demands, which are at variance to existing ideas. It is in this vein that polygamy was legislated away in China in 1950.

However, there is a danger in making legislation which is far ahead of societal ideas, values and norms. An antiquarian legislation has as much problem as utopian legislation. This is the crux of the problem. The issue in legislation is how much of it is enough, i.e. how to hold the balance between  what the society needs and what the legislator thinks society needs.

It is the aim of this article to examine the trend of legislation relating to testate and intestate succession in Ghana with a view to exposing the aspirations, dangers and or loopholes in such legislation.  

In this article, the writer seeks to examine the legislative in-roads into both testate and intestate succession and more particularly, judicial in-roads which appear to impinge upon the concept of testamentary freedom. The issue which the writer seeks to open up for discussion is whether or not there is any need to make a will, in view of the factors that determine the final effect of a will.