Definition
A term from Scots law. Jus relictæ (sometimes rendered jus relictae) is the legal right of a surviving wife to claim a fixed share of her deceased husband's moveable estate, independent of any testamentary disposition he may have made. The right arose automatically on the husband's death and could not be defeated by his will.
The share was calculated as follows: one-third of the net moveable estate if the couple had surviving children, or one-half if there were no surviving children. The children's corresponding claim to a share of the moveable estate was called the legitim (or bairns' part). Together, jus relictæ and legitim constituted the protected or "dead's part" framework of Scots succession law, limiting how much of his moveable estate a husband could freely dispose of by testament.
A companion term, jus relicti, denotes the reciprocal right of a surviving husband in his deceased wife's moveable estate, divided on the same proportional basis.
---
Common Confusion
Jus relictæ and jus relicti are mirror concepts and are easily conflated. The feminine form (relictæ) belongs to the widow; the masculine form (relicti) belongs to the widower. Historical sources sometimes use jus relictæ loosely to cover both, or treat jus relicti as an afterthought. Researchers should confirm which party's right is under discussion before drawing conclusions.
Jus relictæ is also sometimes confused with the dower right in English and American common law. Both give a surviving spouse a claim against a deceased spouse's property, but they differ fundamentally: dower attached to real property and was a creature of the common law, while jus relictæ attached only to moveables and was a product of Scots customary and civil law tradition. The two rights operated in distinct legal systems with distinct procedural mechanics.
---
Core Elements
The right of jus relictæ turned on three determinations:
1. Qualifying relationship. The claimant must have been the lawful wife at the time of the husband's death. A divorced wife had no claim; her right was extinguished on dissolution of the marriage.
2. Subject matter. The right attached only to the net moveable estate — personal property, money, debts owing to the deceased, and similar assets. Heritable property (land and subjects attaching to land) fell entirely outside its scope.
3. Proportional share. One-third if children survived; one-half if none. This calculation was made after satisfaction of the husband's debts but before distribution of the remainder.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term of Scots law with no direct English common law equivalent. Researchers working in Anglo-American legal history who encounter jus relictæ in a source should immediately ask whether the document has a Scottish origin or is discussing Scottish legal principles in a comparative context. Uncritical transfer of the concept into English or American succession law produces error.
The term appears in American legal literature primarily through comparative and encyclopedic treatments, not through operative domestic doctrine. If jus relictæ surfaces in an American case or treatise, it is almost always illustrative — used to explain the civil law tradition or to draw a contrast with dower or curtesy — rather than applied as governing law.
For historical corpus research, be alert to spelling variation: jus relictæ, jus relictae, jus relicte (without ligature), and abbreviated or paraphrased forms all appear. Burrill and Bouvier both include the term, making it accessible through the standard American law dictionary tradition, but neither is a primary Scottish authority.
The Erskine citation in Bouvier (Ersk. Prin. III. IX. 6) refers to John Erskine's Principles of the Law of Scotland, a foundational Scottish institutional text. Kames' Equity and Forbes' Institutes, cited by Burrill, are similarly Scottish sources. Any serious research into the substantive doctrine should follow those citations rather than relying on the compressed American dictionary treatments.
The right of jus relictæ was substantially reformed and ultimately abolished in Scotland by the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964, which replaced the old moveable/heritable distinction with a unified prior rights and legal rights framework. Post-1964 Scottish succession law uses the term "legal rights" (specifically the widow's or widower's right labeled "ius relictæ" or "ius relicti" in explanatory writing) but the operative statute controls, not the classical formulation.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries agree on the essential definition — a widow's right to a share of her husband's moveable estate under Scots law — but vary in depth. Burrill is the most useful for research purposes, supplying primary source citations (Kames and Forbes) that allow independent verification. Bouvier adds the proportional formula (one-third with children, one-half without) and the Erskine reference, making it the most substantively complete of the American dictionaries on this point. Bouvier also usefully pairs jus relictæ with jus relicti in consecutive entries, which helps researchers understand the symmetrical structure of the Scots doctrine.
Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence are brief to the point of being incomplete, stating only that the right belongs to the widow without specifying its measure or limits. Neither provides primary Scottish citations.
None of the historical dictionaries addresses the 1964 Scottish statutory reform, which is the most important jurisdictional development for any researcher dealing with modern materials.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Jus relictæ is a Scots law doctrine with no operative counterpart in English common law or American law. In jurisdictions influenced by civil law tradition — Louisiana being the principal American example — analogous forced share concepts exist, but they derive from different sources and should not be equated with jus relictæ without careful analysis.
---