Capacity to make a will

Abstract

The law of succession is that branch of law governing the transmission of the estate or of the particular property vested in a person at his death, to some other living person or persons. The law of succession is divided into ( i) the law of testamentary succession - regulating the devolution and distribution of the property of a person, who dies having made a will disposing of his property; and (ii) the law of intestate succession regulating the devolution and distribution of the property of a deceased person, which has not been disposed of by will. Sec. 625 of the Civil Code of Malta defines a will as "an instrument, revocable of its nature, by which a person, according to the rules laid down by law, disposes, for the time when he shall have ceased to live, of the whole or of a part of his property." This is basically the definition given by Modestinus "voluntatis nostrae justa sententia de eo quod quis post mortem suam fieri volit". By means of a will a person can bequeath the larger part of his property to those who cared more for him during his lifetime. As Toullier points out, a will is, after religion, the sweetest comfort to a dying man.