A senior Queen’s University Belfast lecturer has explored the complex laws around the post-mortem fate of the dead in a new book published by Routledge.

In The Law and the Dead, Dr Heather Conway looks at how laws in England and Wales differ from other common law jurisdictions including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Dr Conway is a senior lecturer in the School of Law at QUB.

She told Irish Legal News: “Death triggers a host of legal issues around the fate of the deceased’s body.

“What are the rules around burial and cremation (and are other options available); must the deceased’s wishes be upheld; where should the corpse or post-cremation ashes be interred or placed; and, in all these scenarios, who has the right to decide? Subsequent events raise their own distinct issues - for example, can a buried corpse be exhumed and moved elsewhere; what type of gravestone can be erected, and who has the final say on its design and wording?

“The Law and the Dead explores the legal issues which arise here. Although written with legal academics, lawyers and judges in mind (as well as funeral directors and others working in the death industry), the subject-matter is also important to families faced with a series of decisions when a loved one dies.”

Dr Conway added: “Reaction to the book has been positive - and it’s generated some interesting conversations about a difficult subject, and what is or isn’t legally permissible.”