Adam Hirsch’s forthcoming U.C. Davis Law Review article entitled “Will as Thing” argues that courts overemphasize the paper will and should treat it instead as evidence of an underlying bundle of testamentary rights, in the line of Hohfeld. Professor Hirsch favors wider use of harmless‑error rules, similar to those found in the Uniform Probate Code. I worry that relaxing formalities may create more legal fights over “what the decedent really meant,” but the article is interesting nonetheless.
