In most cases in a deceased person’s estate, there are problems with co-ownership where
more than one family member inherits the deceased family estate assets. To escape the perils
of co-ownership the beneficiaries consensually agree to divide the inherited communallyshared
asset/s. This agreement can take place immediately after the death of the family
estate owner or some time later regarding some or all of the said assets. On the conclusion of
the division agreement, the contractual party who receives the awarded assets enjoys sole
ownership and the other contractual parties by agreement retract their ownership. In a
jurisprudential content analysis of forty-six recorded family deceased division agreements
from Old Babylonian Larsa and Nippur, essential elements are identified which are the
framework and qualification requirements for a family deceased division agreement. Within
this framework the concepts, terms and elements of the agreement are categorised as natural
and incidental elements, which reflect the specific law traditions and choices of contractual
parties and show the unique scribal traditions in the different Old Babylonian city-states of
Larsa, Nippur and Sippar. The aim of the study is to shed a more focused light on the
interpretation of recorded Old Babylonian division agreements and to show that the division
agreement was a successful, timeless, estate administration mechanism and tool to obviate
any undesirable consequences of co-ownership of the bequeathed property. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/9921 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Claassens, Susandra Jacoba |
| Contributors | Vermaak, P. S. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (2 v. (xviii, 428 p., 455 p.)) |
| Rights | University of South Africa |
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