Abstract
This Article offers a qualitative examination of the ways in which Israeli legal actors reflect and construct cultural understandings of the relationship between inheritance and elder care in cases in which the deceased has bequeathed property to a caregiver. This Article demonstrates that Israeli courts and lawyers reinforce and promote a cultural schema of family as a pristine domain of unconditional love, albeit one that has been emptied of the daily responsibilities of fulfilling the basic physical needs of elderly kin. Such a cultural schema diminishes the traditional parameters of family responsibility in order to adapt to present circumstances of elder care, while continuing to privilege the custom of keeping money in the family. Hence, this article reveals how inheritance law supports and enhances class reproduction through the institution of the family.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 81-110 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Law and Social Inquiry |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Feb 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 American Bar Foundation.
Funding
Shiri Regev-Messalem is an Assistant Professor and the Academic Director of the Legal Clinics at Bar Ilan University, Faculty of Law. Please address all correspondence to [email protected]. The author thanks Tamar Kricheli-Katz, Tsilly Dagan, Shelly Kreizer-Levy, and Sivan Shlomo-Agon for their useful comments and is also grateful for the interviewees who were willing to share their views. This research was supported by the Israeli Science Foundation (Grant No. 1504/15).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Israeli Science Foundation | 1504/15 |