ABSTRACT
A valid will is said to be one of the most rule-bound of legal documents. It must be in writing, on paper, signed by the testator, witnessed and formally executed. Specific formal phrases are deployed to ensure that testamentary intentions are recognised and enforced.
In the digital age, courts have been challenged by instances in which text messages, iPhone notes, digital video recordings and other media have been used to capture a person’s final wishes. In many instances, these digital artefacts are simultaneously suicide notes, and their digital form likely reflects the practical urgency of their circumstances.
This chapter examines the form of the will in the digital age, and explains how Anglophone legal systems have worked—usually with considerable sensitivity and care—to accommodate these new formats. It recognises that, in the United Kingdom, for instance, the digital age has driven a Law Commission inquiry into whether digital notes, emails and voicemail messages might be recognised as valid wills or codicils (amendments).
In setting out these digital challenges, the chapter will also illustrate the longer history of wills that departed from the traditional format. It will show that, for instance, an eggshell, a tractor fender, a petticoat hem, graffiti on a wall and a soldier’s pay book represented earlier efforts by people driven by urgency—or sometimes eccentricity—to document their last will and testament.
