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This book examines those cases where a person is promised a future inheritance and, having acted on it, later discovers that the promise is unfulfilled. It structures its analysis around the stories of disappointed promisees and their unfulfilled expectations of a future inheritance, and how they might seek redress. It maps and compares the various, and often very diverse range of, legal responses that a promisee can utilize across different legal areas of the law (ranging from contract law to property law, employment law, enrichment law, and succession law) and in both common and civil law traditions. It asks how these responses protect the interests of promisees and whether they are sensitive to the context in which such promises are expressed. In doing so, the focus rests on the level of protection the various forms of redress grant, their scope, and the challenges promisees face when bringing a claim, but also on the values and interests that are at stake when granting relief. The book argues that due to the social and legal context within which promises of a future inheritance are normally made, promisees are often in a vulnerable position that can easily by exploited. It further argues that the law is usually more acutely attuned to the risks that the promisor incurs and that greater attention should be paid to the vulnerability of promisees.

promises, inheritance --- reliance, enrichment --- Inheritance and succession. --- Bequests --- Descent and distribution --- Descents --- Hereditary succession --- Inheritance and succession --- Intestacy --- Intestate succession --- Law of succession --- Succession, Intestate --- Real property --- Universal succession --- Trusts and trustees --- Law and legislation