No Inheritance Tax Relief

The European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Burden and Burden v United Kingdom (Application no 13378/05, the case of the two elderly sisters who shared property and wanted to avoid inheritance tax, see [2006] Fam Law 826) on 12 December 2006. The Court held, by four votes to three, that there had been no violation of Art 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 (European Convention), taken in conjunction with Art 1 of Protocol No 1 (protection of property) to the European Convention. The UK could not be said to have exceeded the wide margin of appreciation afforded to it and that the difference of treatment for the purposes of the grant of inheritance tax exemptions was reasonably and objectively justified for the purposes of Art 14. For the full news story see Issue 1 [2007] International Family Law.