Scheduled Maintenance Notice: H2O will be undergoing maintenance on Weds, July 30. Some features may be temporarily unavailable during this period. Thank you for your understanding.

Main Content

Casebook Read Credits
Open Source Property
Section 14
25 minutes

Human Remains

Harvard Law School Library

Contact: Jeremy Sheff

When there is a dispute between two people over the physical control of something that we are reluctant to label as “property,” is arguing over the label helpful? Is it necessary to resolve the underlying dispute? If not, how else might such a dispute be resolved? These types of questions arise in emotionally charged disputes concerning human remains. Consider the following cases:

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.