The Law and the Dead

This book focuses on the substantive laws around disposal of the recently deceased and associated issues around their post-mortem fate. The book looks primarily at the laws and related policy issues in England and Wales but also offers a comparative approach, drawing heavily on material from other comparable common law jurisdictions including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The book provides an in-depth, contextual and comparative analysis of the substantive laws and policy issues around burial, exhumation and the posthumous treatment of the dead, including commemoration.

Heather Conway is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Queen's University, Belfast.

Introduction 1. Death and Its Immediate Aftermath 2. Bodily Disposal Laws 3.Disposal of the Dead: Legal Rights and Responsibilities 4. Resolving Funeral Disputes 5. Funeral Instructions: The Case for Ante-Mortem Planning 6. Utilising Parts of the Dead: Organ Donation and Posthumous Reproduction 7. Exhuming the Dead 8. Memorialising the Dead 9. The Law and the Dead: Time for a Re-Evaluation?