Article on a Review of the Classification of Gratuitous Transfers

Adam J. Hirsch recently published an Article entitled, Gulliver and Tilson, ‘The Classification of Gratuitous Transfers’ — A Belated Review, 35 U. Queensland L.J. 127 (2016). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

This contribution to a special issue of the University of Queensland Law Review devoted to “My Favorite Law Article” reviews a classic article by Ashbel Gulliver & Catherine Tilson, “The Classification of Gratuitous Transfers,” published in volume 51 of the Yale Law Journal in 1941. Although the article by Gulliver and Tilson is frequently cited as the wellspring of rationales for will formalities, this portion of the work was in truth derivative. It usefully synthesized ideas developed by earlier generations of thinkers. Even Gulliver and Tilson’s oblique suggestion that wills might be given effect despite being improperly formalized was hardly an original idea in 1941. Gulliver and Tilson’s real contribution lay in applying traditional rationales for will formalities to the emerging problem of formalizing will substitutes. Yet this contribution has been largely forgotten and is disregarded by the model lawmakers in their proposals of formalizing rules for will substitutes. I conclude by speculating about why this part of the Gulliver and Tilson article — intended by its authors as its “major thesis” — has received so little attention.