VinFunPark
Logo SLS
Logo SLS
Submit an article
VinFunPark
ISSN 2617-4162 e-ISSN 2617-4170

Social and Legal Studios

All Issues
Submit an article

Current

Social and Legal Studios

Vol. 9, No. 1, 2026

Social and Legal Studios

ISSN 2617-4162

e-ISSN 2617-4170

Publisher: Lviv State University of Internal Affairs

Received 05.06.2025, Revised 08.09.2025, Accepted 06.10.2025
Pages 59-69
https://doi.org/10.32518/sals3.2025.59
Vol. 8, No. 3, 2025
Article

Person’s declaration as deceased: Problem aspects in civil, labour, and family legal relations


Abstract

The discourse on post-human rights is transforming the very paradigm of both the legal determination of a person’s death and the attitude towards its implications. Considering the current state and vectors of development in the legal understanding and relevant legislative provisions for declaring a person dead has become an extremely urgent task of a scientific and practical nature. Research into the legal aspects of human death allows for an expansion of knowledge about the relationships and connections that exist in society. Based on the bibliographic method of analysis, as well as comparative legal and logical methods, the study examines the post-human concept of recognising and declaring a person dead, as well as the rights of a person declared dead, particularly within the frameworks of the will theory and the interest theory. It is shown that these two theories, within the post-human paradigm, stand in a certain degree of contradiction to one another. In the context of the legal systems and traditions of different countries, the civil law consequences of declaring a natural person dead are analysed, and the peculiarities of altering or terminating property and personal non-property legal relations as a result of such declaration are considered. It is emphasised that the philosophical foundations of the concept of “rights” must be taken into account when determining the legal consequences of declaring a person dead – in particular, posthumous legal rights constitute one of the core vectors of such consideration. A conceptual framework for the rights of the deceased is proposed, taking into account the post-human trajectory in the development of legal concepts of human rights. The results of the study broaden the array of components within the legal understanding of human death as a legal fact, as well as its legal consequences


Keywords: legal status; rights; post-human concept of human rights; will theory; interest theory; civil death


Suggested citation

Demkiv, R., Grabar, N., Boryslavskyi, R., & Skovronska, I. (2025). Person’s declaration as deceased: Problem aspects in civil, labour, and family legal relations. Social and Legal Studios, 8(3), 59-69. https://doi.org/10.32518/sals3.2025.59
References
  1. Alikaj, V. (2014). Natural death vs civil death. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(22), 320-325. doi: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n22p320.
  2. Allard, K., & Munir, S. (2017). Posthumous marriages and the importance of making a will. Retrieved from https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7dd1d624-6027-4412-9830-50e881615ef4.
  3. Bear, M. (2023). A practical guide to UK Employment Law: For HR professionals, managers & employees. London: MichaelHR.
  4. Black, H.C. (1990). Black’s law dictionary (6th ed.). St. Paul: West Publishing Co.
  5. Bowen, J. (2022). The interest theory of rights at the margins: Posthumous rights. In M. McBride & V. Kurki (Eds.), Without trimmings: The legal, moral, and political philosophy of Matthew Kramer (pp. 51-72). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  6. Cabrelli, D. (2020). Employment Law in context. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. Chandler, J.A., & Pope, T.M. (2023). Legal considerations for the definition of death in the 2023 Canadian Brain-Based Definition of Death Clinical Practice Guideline. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 70, 659-670. doi: 10.1007/s12630-023-02410-9.
  8. Charatan, F. (2005). Autopsy supports clam that Schiavo was in persistent vegetative state. British Medical Journal, 330(7506), article number 1467. doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7506.1467-a.
  9. Civil Code of Ukraine. (2003, January). Retrieved from https://ips.ligazakon.net/document/T030435.
  10. Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine. (2004, March). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/go/1618-15.
  11. Dinneen, J.D., Krtalić, M., Davoudi, N., Hellmich, H., Ochsner, C., & Bressel, P. (2024). Information science and the inevitable: A literature review at the intersection of death and information management: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 75(3), 268-297. doi: 10.1002/asi.24861.
  12. Employment Law in South Africa. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.hr-inform.co.uk/employment_law/employment-law-in-south-africa.
  13. Falconer, K. (2020). Reconceptualising the Law of the dead by expanding the interests of the living. Monash University Law Review, 45(3), 757-784.
  14. Family Law Act of Australia. (1975, June). Retrieved from https://www.ag.gov.au/families-and-marriage/families/children-and-family-law.
  15. Family Law Act of Ontario. (1986). Retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90f03?search=family+law+act.
  16. Fera, N. (2024). Canadian family law handbook. London: Austin Macauley Publishers.
  17. Hearns, W. (2018). The theory of legal duties and rights: An introduction to analytical jurisprudence. London: Forgotten Books.
  18. Judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of England “Farrow v Wilson”. (1869, July). Retrieved from https://www.studocu.com/my/document/international-islamic-university-malaysia/law-of-contract-1/farrow-v-wilson/40036076.
  19. Judgment of the United Kingdom Appeal Tribunal “Andrews (Deceased) v. Lewisham and Guys Mental Health NHS Trust”. (1999, March). Retrieved from https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5a8ff86760d03e7f57ebfc47.
  20. Judgment of the United Kingdom Court of Exchequer “Stubbs, Administrator v. the Holywell Railway Company”. (1867, June). Retrieved from https://vlex.co.uk/vid/stubbs-v-the-holywell-802771817.
  21. Kirton-Darling, E. (2022). Death, family and the law: The contemporary inquest in context. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  22. Klasiček, D. (2023). Inheritance law in the Twenty-First century: New circumstances and challenges. In O.J. Gstrein, M. Fröhlich, C. van den Berg & T. Giegerich, (Eds.), Modernising European legal education (MELE) (pp. 235-251). Cham: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-40801-4_15.
  23. Klychkov, A. (2020). Grounds and civil legal consequences of recognizing a natural person as missing and declaring him as dead in Ukraine. (PhD Dissertation, National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine).
  24. Kryshtanovych, M., Dragan, I., Grytsyshen, D., Sergiienko, L., & Baranovska, T. (2022). The public and environmental aspect of restoring sustainable regional development in the face of the negative impact of military actions on the territory of the country. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 17(5), 1645-1651. doi: 10.18280/ijsdp.170530.
  25. Kryshtanovych, M., Kiblyk, D., Dzyanyy, R., Kovalskyi, M., Primush, R., & Nazarenko, T. (2024). Formation of drivers of sustainable development: Administrative and legal support to ensure information security. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 19(4), 1611-1619. doi: 10.18280/ijsdp.19043.
  26. Kurki, V. (2021). The interest theory of rights: Still standing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  27. Law of the Republic of Albania No. 7870/1994 “On the Declaration of Death and the Legal Consequences of Absence”. (1994, October). Retrieved from https://www.qbz.gov.al/eli/ligj/1994/10/13/7870/ad4802da-d43c-4dee-9354-5e435867c3cf?q=7870.
  28. Law of Ukraine dated No. 2217-IX “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Regulation of the Legal Regime in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” (2022, April). Retrieved from http://surl.li/mackb.
  29. Law of Ukraine No. 2352-IX “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Optimisation of Labor Relations”. (2022, July). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/main/2352-20.
  30. Norman, J. (2021). Posthuman legal subjectivity. London: Routledge.
  31. Opinion of the Supreme Court of U.S. in Case “Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dep’t of Health”. (1990, December). Retrieved from https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/497/261/. 
  32. Payne, J., & Payne, M. (2022). Canadian family law. Toronto: Irwin Law Inc.
  33. Pope, T. (2018). Brain death and the law: Hard cases and legal challenges. The Hastings Center Report, 48(4), 46-48. doi: 10.1002/hast.954. 
  34. Rainbolt, G.W. (2023). Rights: Interest and will theories. In M. Sellers & S. Kirste (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the philosophy of law and social philosophy (pp. 3109-3113). Dordrecht: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-6519-1_375.
  35. Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine No. 5 “On Judicial Practice in Cases on Establishing Facts of Legal Significance”. (1995, March). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/go/v0005700-95.
  36. Sitkoff, R., & Dukeminier, J. (2021). Wills, trusts, and estates (11th ed.).  Burlington: Aspen Publishing.
  37. Smith, N., & Plaatjies, D. (2024). Employee entitlements in the event of employer death. Retrieved from https://www.werksmans.com/legal-updates-and-opinions/employee-entitlements-in-the-event-of-employer-death/. 
  38. South Africa Conditions of Employment Act. (1997, December). Retrieved from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a75-97.pdf.
  39. South Africa Labor Relations Act. (1995, December). Retrieved from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/act66-1995labourrelations.pdf.
  40. Stelzner, S., Harrison, S., Patterson, B., & Ebrahim, Z. (2021). Labour and employment compliance in South Africa. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law Intl.
  41. Succession Act of Australia. (2025, January). Retrieved from  https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/__legislation/lz/c/a/succession%20act%202023/current/2023.30.auth.pdf.
  42. Succession Law Reform Act (SLRA). (1990). Retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90s26.
  43. Trabsky, M. (2024). Death: New trajectories in law. London: Routledge.
  44. Trabsky, M., & Jones, I. (2024). The Routledge handbook of law and death. London: Routledge.
  45. U.S. Constitution. (1787, September). Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution.
  46. Upadhyay, U. (2021). Declaration of civil death: Theoretical problems and practical solutions. SSRN. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808643.
  47. Wicks, E. (2017). The legal definition of death and the right to life. In S. McCorristine (Ed.), Interdisciplinary perspectives on mortality and its timings. palgrave historical studies in the criminal corpse and its afterlife (pp. 119-131). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  48. Willems, G. (2017). Death and legal family formats in Belgium. In K. Waaldijk, M. Digoix, N. Nikolina, G.Zago, D. Damonzé, A. Caporali & A. Abdellah (Eds.), The LawsAndFamilies Database – aspects of legal family formats for same-sex and different-sex couples. Paris: INED.
  49. Zawadzka, J. (2024). Life after death? Legal relations of companies after cessation of their legal existence. Athens Journal of Law, 10(4), 567-590. doi: 10.30958/ajl.10-4-8.