UKRI Policy Support Fund: How do different communities and professionals view the rights of deceased people, or others, to make decisions about dead bodies, funeral and remains?

The Law Commission is conducting a review of funerary legislation in England and Wales.

In AY2023-2024 we secured Policy Support funding to study Muslim attitudes to grave reuse. We delivered our findings to the Law Commission in May 2024 and the study was referenced in the Law Commission’s part 1 consultation paper in October 2024. In November 2024 we hosted a Law Commission public consultation event on campus and an invite-only roundtable to engage academic communities with the concepts within the Commission’s third sub-project. These concepts included the question of what rights a person has to make binding decisions over their dead body, and how different agencies and communities engage with this topic.

In extending this record of work, this project aims to produce research findings that can benefit the Law Commission’s current review of funerary legislation. The project will create robust evidence and analysis on how different communities and professionals view the rights of deceased people, or others, to make decisions about dead bodies, funerals and remains.

This project will thus provide evidence on the gaps and inconsistencies of the rights of dead people in relation to their funeral wishes and remains. This evidence will be delivered to the Law Commission to inform the third part of their public consultation on whether the deceased should have rights.

Research England Policy Support Fund Grant (ref. RE-P-2024-01)

The Law Commission is conducting a review of funerary legislation in England and Wales. This review includes the question of what rights a person has to make binding decisions over their dead body. This project will create robust evidence on how different communities and professionals view the rights of deceased people, or others, to make decisions about dead bodies, funerals and remains. This evidence will be delivered to the Law Commission to support their public consultation on whether the deceased should have rights.