Legalised vampires

[ffutures]

My last few BtVS / CSI crossover stories have set up a world which knows about the supernatural, slayers, etc. and in which vampires have some minimal "human" rights in some US states - no staking without due cause (or a moderately good excuse) but you have to avoid human blood and have a tracer chip inside your body. While I haven't said this explicitly, I think that Willow has a hand in designing the chips, and that they transmit a magical warning (or even release a few CC of holy water) if a vamp falls off the wagon. Whether or not this is legal is open to debate...

OK, what about property rights? What happens to the things you own when you become a vampire? Legally you're dead, and lawyers will not get around that one easily. What about bank accounts, investments, etc.; can you leave things to yourself, and what happens to your debts etc.? Could you set up a trust fund, while alive, to give you money once you're dead. Why would you want to?

Another question; could you give evidence about things that happened when you were alive, and would it be legally acceptable?

And yes, I am vaguely thinking about another story - but I really don't want to rip off the Anita Blake universe, so I'm assuming that most of the problems are still being tested by the courts and that current US law mostly decides things.

All suggestions gratefully received.

Comments

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

OK, what about property rights? What happens to the things you own when you become a vampire? Legally you're dead, and lawyers will not get around that one easily. What about bank accounts, investments, etc.; can you leave things to yourself, and what happens to your debts etc.? Could you set up a trust fund, while alive, to give you money once you're dead. Why would you want to?

Another question; could you give evidence about things that happened when you were alive, and would it be legally acceptable?

If you're gonna be consistent with the Jossverse point of view (and the scripts got a little inconsistent on this occasionally), there is no "you" involved! A vampire is a petty demon inhabiting your former body, with most or all of your memories (which explains why vamps are sometimes parodies or mockeries of the former inhabitants of the corpses involved). If you are stupid enough to want to be taken over by a vampire, presumably you could leave property to that creature in your corpse, subject to local statutes, if the courts decide that vamps are "persons" within the law. Debts, on the other hand, would attach to the estate of the decedent as before. And even if the courts decide that vamps are "persons" within the law, the testimony of a vamp as to the knowledge of his predecessor would be hearsay, IMHO.

(I never got the impression that any of this was official in your BtVS/CSI stories; I thought it was very much empirical and sub rosa?)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The last story was set in New York a while after the major demon invasion of Not Fade Away, which gave the game away - I assumed that the Nevada scheme of the earlier stories (no official status for vampires etc., except that they're fitted with tracking gizmos, but no staking if they behave) has become the model for some of the USA but not all, and that it is still mostly a guideline for public agencies, not tested law.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say thanks on the evidence thing - that was more or less the idea I had, that it wouldn't be admissible, it's nice that others agree.