Abstract
This paper puts forward a new rationale for the understanding of presumed undue influence, a vitiating doctrine in private law used to challenge gifts and testamentary dispositions. To explain the need for this development the paper examines judgments concerning gifts which are the product of religious and spiritual influence. By focusing on such hard cases that inevitably involve relationships with a substantial degree of influence, which can involve the expectation of gifts or beliefs that they must be made as part of a religious experience, the paper is able to offer justifications for why an integrative focus on autonomy and exploitation is a helpful development in legal understanding. The integrative rationale proposed examines a claimant’s impaired autonomy to see whether it was caused by the defendant’s wrongdoing. It is argued that the combination of the two normative principles beneficially assists in determining whether defendants have exploited a claimant’s impaired autonomy to make a financial gain by means of a gift. The paper suggests that it is not enough that the claimant’s autonomy was somehow impaired before making a gift. Causation should be established by proving that a defendant caused that impairment and subsequently infringed the claimant’s autonomy through exploitative conduct. It is suggested that evidence of a claimant’s impaired autonomy combined with evidence of a defendant’s exploitative conduct, which causes a gift to be made, provides a more principled rationale for findings of presumed undue influence in cases of any nature.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
Religious Influence, Vulnerability, Abuse of Religious Capital, Autonomy, Exploitation
