Personhood, Pluralism, and Property: A Comparative Analysis of Nigerian and Anglo-Canadian Succession Law

Contemporary retroactive tests for testamentary capacity subvert individual autonomy, functionally reducing will-writing to a system of de factoforced heirship and fueling unconstructive litigation. Testamentary intention and property are driven by the law’s conception of personhood. The definition and understanding of personhood are, therefore, important in any unknotting of the last testament of a human life. Post-mortem capacity contests posthumously disenfranchise the deceased by stripping them of the agency to defend their decisions. It is within this framework that a preventive theory of succession law, which harmonizes personhood with the socio-historical evolution of property, is advanced. This paper proposes a transformative policy framework: intentioned policy initiatives and state-backed lifetime compliance measures that entirely supplant retrospective judicial evaluations or reduce that interrogation to the barest minimum. Utilizing Nigeria’s pluralistic legal system—where customary, Islamic, and common law intersect—as a primary case study, this analysis contextualizes this normative model within a comparative Anglo-Canadian jurisprudence.