ABSTRACT
§1. A special form of the fiscal law of inheritance is the Law of Escheat, by which, under certain conditions, a dead person’s property reverts to the State. This law has a certain historic interest, but at the present time in this country only applies to intestate estates, in cases where there are no relatives, however remote. It has been proposed by Bentham, Mill and others that the present rights of “collaterals” to inherit on intestacy should be abolished, and the field of operation of the Law of Escheat correspondingly extended. 1 But such a provision would stimulate will-making, and its effect is not likely to be great.
