LAWS2023A - Law of Succession-2021-SM2

Overview of The Law of Succession (LAWS2023A)

The Law of Succession is a compulsory LLB course offered in second year. The function of the course is to provide students with a general background to the Law of Succession and highlight the important role it plays in everyday life in South Africa. The Law of Succession deals with the rules related to the devolution of an estate after a person dies. In legal terms this concerns the totality of rules which control the transfer of the assets of a deceased person to his/her successors.

When a person dies he/she leaves property as well as liabilities or debts. This property is referred to as an estate. In the Law of Succession a person’s estate needs to be finalised according to rules of testate succession (dying with a will) or intestate succession (dying without a will). In the course you will be introduced to both branches of succession and will learn to distinguish between the legal principles applicable to the law of testate and to the law of intestate succession in South African law. In addition, the course aims to equip you with practical skills that will enable you to analyse and find solutions for factual scenarios and to draft a simple will.  

The primary teaching objectives of the course are;

• To provide an overview of the nature, scope and application of the law of succession in South Africa. To illustrate the dual nature of succession and the changing nature of succession planning in a post-apartheid South Africa.
• To build an understanding of the main concepts, principles, practical aspects and rules of the law of succession as found in legislation, common law, case law and customary law.
• To introduce students to certain areas of debate and to encourage critical analysis of the law of succession.
• To model the analysis of factual scenarios that raise issues governed by the law of succession.
• To guide students in basic legal research through the sourcing and analysis of relevant legal authority.

We cover a large amount of work in a short space of time and you will be expected to keep up and be responsible for your own work. It is important that you engage with the online lectures, read the prescribed material and consult with your lecturers electronically, if the need arises, and complete your assessments with due diligence and earnestness. Be aware much of the information and guidance provided aims to prepare you for a future career and is not only about passing a series of tests and exams. As such, committed studiousness from your side is not negotiable.

We trust that you will find this course enlightening, stimulating and useful for your own life and the lives of those people who you will serve when you enter the legal profession in whatever capacity you might choose.

Teaching Methods

A detailed course outline with a comprehensive reading list and bibliography are provided for this course. Students are expected to read ahead of the lecture in order to acquire a basic familiarity with the relevant topic and take their own notes. Presentations will be uploaded weekly identifying the key concepts covered in the units below. Weekly zoom sessions will supplement the presentations and the links for these sessions will be communicated on Ulwazi.   Prescribed case law and additional readings will be uploaded to the resources folder.  Practical examples are routinely considered in the course, some of which involve numerical calculations.

 

CO-ORDINATOR & LECTURERS

 

Course Co-ordinator and lecturer	Lecturer
Gino Franz Office 107 DJ Du Plessis +27 (0) 11 717 8424 Gino.frantz@wits.ac.za	Dr Desia Colgan LB 155 +27 (0) 11 717 8418 desia.colgan@wits.ac.za

                                               

LECTURES & ATTENDANCE

Lectures

Presentations will be uploaded weekly identifying the key concepts covered in the units below. Zoom sessions will supplement the presentations and the links for these sessions will be communicated on Ulwazi.  It is important to note that certain announcements as well as additions and subtractions to your prescribed reading list may be made in the uploaded presentations and in the Zoom sessions. It will be your responsibility to work through these materials. On account of us being committed to preparing you for the workplace, it is your professional responsibility to manage your time and regularly check Ulwazi announcements.

 

Lecture times:

Tuesdays: 16h15 (single)

Thursdays: 08h00 (double)

 

WEEKLY PLANNER

 

Week 1 2 – 6 August 2021	Orientation and Unit 1: INTRODUCTION TO SUCCESSION Mr G Frantz
Week 2 9 – 13 August 2021	Unit 1: INTRODUCTION TO SUCCESSION Mr G Frantz
Week 3 16 – 20 August 2021	Unit 2: INTESTATE SUCCESSION   Dr D Colgan
Week 4 23 – 27 August 2021	Unit 2: INTESTATE SUCCESSION
Week 5 30 August – 3 September 2021	Unit 2: INTESTATE SUCCESSION
Week 6 6 – 10 September 2021	Unit 2: INTESTATE SUCCESSION MCQ tutorial exercise
Week 7 13 – 17 September 2021	MCQ Test (14 September) Unit 3: TESTATE SUCCESSION: FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS   Mr G Frantz
Mid-Term Break:  20-24 September 2021
Week 8 27   September – 1 October 2021	Unit 4: TESTATE SUCCESSION: FORMALITIES & CAPACITIES     Mr G Frantz
Week 9 4 – 8 October 2021	Unit 4: TESTATE SUCCESSION: FORMALITIES & CAPACITIES     Mr G Frantz
Week 10 11 – 15 October 2021	Unit 5: TESTATE SUCCESSION: FREEDOM OF TESTATION           Mr G Frantz Online Test
Week 11 18 – 22 October 2021	Unit 6: TESTATE SUCCESSION: CONTENT OF WILLS   Dr D Colgan Submit e-portfolio
Week 12 25 – 29 October 2021	Unit 6: TESTATE SUCCESSION: CONTENT OF WILLS Dr D Colgan
Week 13 1 – 5 November 2021	Unit 6 and Revision

Tutorials

You will be required to attend a series of scheduled tutorials during which certain assessment opportunities will take place and be submitted for marks. A tutorial schedule will be placed on Ulwazi for your convenience. One of your assessments for the semester is a portfolio of all of your tutorial exercises and corrections. Attendance is mandatory.

PRESCRIBED & RECOMMENDED STUDY MATERIAL

Prescribed Study Material

• The prescribed textbook is: J Jamneck & C Rautenbach (eds) The Law of Succession in South Africa (2017-third edition) Oxford University Press, Cape Town.

Recommended reading

• MJ De Waal & MC Schoeman-Malan Introduction to the Law of Succession 4^th Edition (2008) Juta, Cape Town.
• DSP Cronje & A Roos, Casebook on the Law of Succession 4^th edition (2002) Unisa.
• There are a number of recommended cases and journal articles. You will be responsible for accessing certain of these cases and articles. These sources are listed under each Unit laid out in the Study Component of this course outline below.

ASSESSMENT

General Principles of Assessment

Our approach to assessment in this course is directed by the Senate Policy on the Assessment of Student Learning S2013/1856 (hereafter the “Senate Policy”).

• Principles and values of assessment: We are committed to assessment that is “unbiased, fair, transparent, valid and reliable” and as such we will use “a variety of assessment forms and methods… carried out throughout the year”. See § A of the Senate Policy.
• Purposes of assessment: The purposes of assessment include teaching you the requisite knowledge and skills, detected problems area in the work that deserve more attention, testing whether you have met the outcomes for the course, and ensuring that you display the necessary competencies required for you to progress towards completing your LLB degree. See § A of the Senate Policy.

• Forms of assessment: Assessments will be continuous (in other words, frequent and ongoing), formative (done with the aim of giving you feedback to learn and grow in intellectual maturity), integrated (testing your ability to integrate different parts of the work in a way that exposes you to the so-called real world), and summative (testing you on different segments of the work separately and collectively). We will make use of formal (invigilated) and informal (take-home, unsupervised) assessments, as detailed below. See § 1.2. of the Senate Policy.

• Feedback on assessment: We undertake to give you regular and continuous feedback on the various assessment opportunities. Due to the number of students, we will generally provide very brief and basic comments on written assessments. However, we undertake to provide you with a general feedback report on every assessment concluded, within three to four weeks of submission of the assessment. See § 1.3. of the Senate Policy.

• Quality assurance of assessment: Each assessment opportunity will be internally moderated by a member of the Wits Law School. At least 30% of the assessments that contribute to the final marks of the course will be externally examined by a subject expert from another University. See § 1.3. & 2. of the Senate Policy.

Aims of Assessment in this Course

In line with the teaching objectives the assessment criteria aim to assess the student’s:

• understanding of the underlying values and nature of the law of succession;
• ability to identify, describe and apply the main concepts, principles and rules of the law of succession;
• ability to critically analyse the law of succession either from a conceptual/theoretical standpoint or with reference to a given factual scenario citing relevant legal authority or rules;
• growth and development of knowledge about controversial issues that affect or are affected by the law of succession;
• understanding of the dual nature of succession and its impact on the law of succession in South Africa.

Assessment Opportunities

The following table summarises the various assessment opportunities that you will have to complete in this semester:

Assessment	Description	Tentative Dates	Weight
MCQ Test	Online MCQ test: you will be required to answer multiple-choice or true/false questions on Units 1 and 2	Tuesday 14 September 2021	10%
Tutorials	Homework e-Portfolio    All of the weekly tutorial assessments, corrections and selected case summaries will be submitted on Ulwazi in the form of an e-portfolio. This is an informal (not invigilated) assessment opportunity. More details will be provided in class and during tutorials.	22 October 2021 (Friday)	10%
Test	Online test Mixed multiple choice, practical application and longer questions covering Units 1, 2, 3 and 4	14 October 2021 (Thursday)	30%
Examination	A formal online summative assessment based on the entire semester’s work (Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). No part of the course is written off.	TBC.	50%
TOTAL			100%