Egoism and the Return of Charitable Gifts

The law assumes that all donors are altruistic, when they are not. It assumes that all donors care about the charitable ends to which they give their money, when they do not. In consequence of the law's misconception, judges sometimes proceed to return gifts without a sound legal rationale for doing so. It is argued that where gifts fail, the legal basis of return is that, in analogy with frustrated consumers who have paid for unobtainable goods, donors should get their money back. With reference to altruism and egoism as the concepts are understood in economic donative theory, it will be seen that this legal logic only bites in relation to individuals who genuinely care about the delivery of charitable outcomes. The paper applies warm glow theory, alongside more traditional understandings of economic altruism to the law of failed testamentary gifts.