Probate and Domestic Relations Proceedings

This chapter examines the role of uncontested adjudication in probate and domestic relations proceedings. While state courts commonly issued constitutive decrees to recognize or create new legal relationships in these settings (to admit wills to probate or to confirm adoption of children), federal courts declined to hear uncontested proceedings to register or claim a right or title in these contexts. The federal courts lacked power to entertain uncontested applications for the issuance of constitutive decrees as to matters of state law. Such a finding lays the foundation for distinguishing between cases under federal law and controversies over state law, and helps explain the federal judicial reluctance to assert jurisdiction over matters of probate and domestic relations.