Beyond Bloodlines: Should Merit Shape Intestate Succession?

Professor Ho will build on that important work by adding one more value to the conversation: care.

Whilst Western intestate succession laws follow bloodlines and marriage, several Asian legal systems have pioneered a more nuanced approach that rewards those who had supported the deceased and sanctioned those who abandoned or mistreated them.

Professor Ho will examine the justifications and practical workings of these Asian inheritance models. As societies face demographic aging and mounting pressure on eldercare systems, these Asian approaches invite us to rethink the relationship between merit and inheritance.

Lusina Ho is Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Trust and Equity at the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong. While pursuing her teaching and research in Trust, Restitution, and Comparative Trust Law (in particular Chinese Trust Law), she has been consulted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the enactment of the Chinese Trust Law and the Government of the Hong Kong SAR on the reform of the Trustee Ordinance. In 2019, she has successfully convinced the Hong Kong SAR Government to launch a trust service for special needs individuals in the territory.

She has published widely and her work has been cited in highest appellate courts in common law jurisdictions, and has been translated and published in Japanese. She received from HKU the Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2006, the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017, the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award in 2018, and the University Knowledge Award in 2018.