The way trusts and estates is taught does more than organize a syllabus. Over time, it shapes how lawyers and judges conceptualize the field—what they treat as central, what they treat as peripheral, and what they assume belongs together.
The Integrated Reality Behind the Course
Modern wealth transmission relies on an integrated system of probate and nonprobate transfers. In practice, the key instruments in an estate plan often include trusts alongside wills and other donative arrangements. Teaching the subject as a unified course reflects this reality. Trusts are not treated as an optional add-on; they are taught as part of the core architecture of how property is transferred at death and during life.
How Teaching Feeds Back Into Doctrine
This is where the point becomes especially interesting. Law school is where many lawyers and judges acquire the mental model they will use for decades. When the dominant model is integrated, readers naturally look for:
- A coherent “trusts and estates” framework rather than isolated compartments
- Doctrinal connections across wills, trusts, and other donative transfers
- Authoritative sources that reflect the way the field is practiced and taught
Restatements do not merely summarize the law; they also help structure how the law is explained and applied. When the Restatement structure preserves older conceptual silos, friction can arise between:
- How the subject is taught
- How it is practiced
- How it is formally restated
That friction helps explain why a unified Restatement approach can feel not only desirable but natural to modern readers—even if the institutional choice about scope remains contested.
Series Navigation
- Overview: Why Is There a Push for a New Restatement of Trusts and Estates?
- Previous: What Restatements Are Supposed to Do—and When They Fail
- Next: Modern Trust Practice and the Restatement’s Blind Spots
Sources
- Thomas P. Gallanis, Time for a New Restatement, Probate & Property, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2026), available on SSRN:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6123049
Hani Sarji
New York lawyer who cares about people, is fascinated by technology, and is writing his next book, Estate of Confusion: New York.
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