Thanks to Gerry Beyer's wills, trusts, and estates blog I see that a legislator in California has set up a wiki to "allow citizens 'to draft a piece of legislation directly.'” And you know what? They're using the probate code. This ought to be very interesting -- so far there aren't a lot of participants, but they are what you might expect from California. For instance, a participant who calls herself(?) Crazyliz says "I'm another retired lawyer, from California, and I'm also interested in citizen democracy, so I want to participate in this experiment. I've participated in the past in an experiment with rule-making by wiki, which didn't work out so well, but one unsuccessful attempt doesn't mean the idea can't work. It just means there's more to learn."
While they're starting with a section of the code that restricts those who draft a will (or other instrument) -- and people who're related to the drafter -- from taking under the will. So not all that controversial yet. I look forward to seeing what happens when they get to intestacy shares.... I often find that lay people (and even law students) are surprised at how little a surviving spouse takes via intestacy. In fact, on the first day of trusts and estates I conduct a survey of students' attitudes towards intestacy as a way of gauging their thinking about default rules (and also as a way of introducing some of the concepts we're going to be studying). Almost all of them are substantially more generous to surviving spouses than is the North Carolina probate code. (One notable exception to this is when the surviving spouse has substantial assets of her own -- and that's worth some discussion at some point.)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how this experiment works out.
What do you mean by "they are what you might expect from California." You usually appear so well-versed in bigotry, prejudice and stereotype, especially with the old forms of it in the South. Nothing against the South, of course. I'm sure the old South is now a bastion of enlightenment, with the majority holding liberal values that resemble yours.
Whatever might you expect from Californians? Please explain.
The reason I ask is this: in your posts and comments you are ordinarily quite a gentleman. This off-hand comment probably seems trivial to you. It is as trivial as something said by someone else might seem to that person, despite condemnation by you or others.
Generally, and without any personal reference, it never ceases to amaze me that the law academy often seems to lack even the most rudimentary sense of its own prejudices. These are simply accepted as truths, while condemnations of the prejudices and biases of others - real, imagined or grossly exaggerated - are also simply accepted as necessary to correct the "wrongs" seen in others.
Posted by: anon | December 31, 2013 at 01:16 AM
Thanks for the kind words (about my usual posts), anon. What I meant was that crazyliz sounds like a Californian in that she(?) is talking about ideas like citizen democracy. No offense intended to anyone -- and in my mind citizen democracy is a good thing. It's also something that I'd expect to hear in California more than on the east coast.
Posted by: Alfred L. Brophy | December 31, 2013 at 10:25 AM
Alfred:
Sorry if I misunderstood. The sort of vague "what you would expect" and choice of "Crazyliz" as the representive seemed to me, at first blush, to imply something along the lines of "fruits and nuts" ...
the typical East Coast slander against Californians.
As for ideas about "citizen democracy" actually, this is something more associated with other regions, in my view. Yes, there is an initiative process in California, if that's what you mean.
The notion of individual rights and citizens making law, however, perhaps finds more expression in other areas where, as the story is told, older values trump mere legislation.
At least in my view, vague generalizations about people usually fail. Dividing the country up into regions and races and parties and on and on, and then drawing certain and sweeping conclusions based on these usually imperfect at best classifications, is detrimental to this society. Yet, this impetus is not only tolerated in the legal academy, but celebrated there and promoted and nutured and spread like a sickness into the society at large. There is no sense of one one people even in our country of the United States.
Maybe it is just that as the new year approaches, I'd like to think we could have made some progress by now. Instead, we seem to be sliding back. Divide and pit groups against each other, with all scrambling over each other for spoils and rewards based on condemnation of the "other" ...
Again, a "wiki to allow citizens 'to draft a piece of legislation directly.'” wouldn't seem to me to be likely to draw any response in California different from anywhere else in this country.
Again, I respect your work and your posts and comments are generally very measured, reasoned and polite.
Posted by: anon | December 31, 2013 at 01:37 PM