In September 2024, Alyssa DiRusso's 2023 article "Life and Death Matters in Conflict of Laws" was recognized as one of the best works of recent scholarship relating to trusts and estates as reviewed by Gerry Beyer on Jotwell: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots).
Her article, published by the Tulane Law Review, explores ways in which the draft under development of the Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws or the efforts of the Uniform Law Commission could articulate clear rules for reconciling these conflicts. Unless the reform movement in conflict of laws is able to provide a workable and consistent structure for determination of death, we cannot reliably answer the fundamental question of the law of decedents' estates: whether we have a decedent.