Symposium on The Role of Federal Law in Private Wealth Transfer

The symposium issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 67: 6: 1531, addresses various facets of federal law in private wealth transfer.  A number of the articles are followed by comments by other distinguished scholars, who not only address the particular article, but also use the comment as a platform to explore other aspects of the topic.  Provided below is a portion of the introduction to this issue:

The old paradigm is dead. Private wealth transfer law is NOT just state law. Indeed, in some respects, it is now principally federal law. This increasing federalization and even dominance can be expected to continue apace. While the problems and consequences of federalization are not new to many other areas of law and have received considerable and serious scholarly attention, they are new to private wealth transfer. The way in which the state-federal balance is being struck, the consequences for private wealth transfer flowing from federal involvement, and the principles that should guide courts and legislators in determining the proper state-federal allocation, are all examined with considerable analytic care in these pages. Hopefully, this symposium issue will stimulate similar efforts in the future—all contributing to a better understanding of what the federal role is and what it ought to be in this historically state dominated area of law.