Life and Death in Private Law

Private law regulates life; this is self-evident, but how does it regulate death? This edited collection explores this question. Life and death are the beginning and end of the legal person: the instigator and terminator of rights, interests and obligations. They are also the nominal separator of particular fields of law (medical law from succession law, for example). As such they act as fault lines that can test the limit of private law principles and norms. This book explores what life and death tell us about private law and what private law can tell us about the meaning and value of life and death.

About the author

Kate Falconer is Lecturer at the School of Law and Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork, Ireland.Kit Barker is Professor of Law at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland.

Photograph © The University of Queensland 2016
Andrew Fell is Lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia.

Product details

• Authors: Kit Barker, Kate Falconer, Andrew Fell
• Assisted by: Kit Barker (Editor), Kate Falconer (Editor), Andrew Fell (Editor)
• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 02.07.2026
• EAN: 9781509969364
• ISBN: 978-1-5099-6936-4
• No. of pages: 296
• Series: Hart Studies in Private Law
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; England, LAW / Torts, Commonwealth of Nations, LAW / Contracts, Private or civil law: general, The Commonwealth, Private / Civil law: general works, private law; life and death