Funeral arrangements and family wishes

Mark Pawlowski, Barrister and Professor Emeritus of Property Law, School

Although there is no right of ownership in a dead body under English law, the common law imposes a duty upon the deceased's personal representatives to arrange for the proper disposal of the body. In the event of a dispute, the court has an inherent jurisdiction to direct how the deceased's body should be disposed of. The recent case of Patel v Patel [2025] EWHC 560 (Ch), has highlighted the difficulties in determining a deceased's funeral arrangements where the deceased's will contains no directions as to how the body is to be disposed of and the family members (also the executors) are in dispute as to how this should be best achieved. Apart from Patel, the article reviews a number of other cases where the court was required to intervene where two persons with equal priority in making decisions were not able to agree on the disposal of the deceased's body.