Study On The Testament Handwriting Identification

Making testament has gradually become a common behavior in modern society. However, it is not such easy as it looks like. Testament firstly appeared along with the generation of human private property, and it has been constantly changing with its format. It is the rationality and the most real emotional expression a human being would have when following the law of the nature and facing the death calmly. The content of a testament, to some extent, can reflect the level of economic development, the condition of cultural awareness, the degree of the perfect legal system and the population structure in a country or a race. Because of that, we can even conclude testament is one of the most important components of human culture.In recent years, making testament is becoming more and more common among Chinese citizens and there are many reasons accounting for this phenomenon. It could be driven by the booming economy, the raising of legal consciousness, the aging of population and other factors. The generalization of testament dramatically increases the quantity of the inheritance dispute cases and at the same time it also increases the judicial identification cases which require identifying the handwriting of the testament signatures. The testament handwriting itself covers a wide range of knowledge and handwriting usually changes with complicated reasons, so it could be regarded as one of the most challenge aspects of handwriting identification. Besides, there are limited theoretical, systematic and specific studies around testament handwriting identification. Thus, conducting a specific and systematic review on the features of testament handwriting, its trend of changes and the process as well as method of testament handwriting identification is of great importance to either theoretical studies or practices.This paper consists of three parts with about 35000 characters. Starting with the concept, status and the significance of testament handwriting identification, based on relevant theory, the author compares, analyzes and then summaries the features of some common testament handwriting. Furthermore, she also addresses the steps and key points of testament handwriting identification, in a systematic way.The first part gives you an overview of testament handwriting identification, introducing concepts regarding testament and testament handwriting identification, the current status of testament handwriting identification studies and its significance. In exposition of those concepts, the author mainly explains the definition of testament, testament handwriting and testament handwriting identification. She also quotes relevant regulations of the testament format, validity and witness from the Law of Succession, and at the time, briefly introduces the scope and the objectives of testament handwriting identification based on its practice.The second part discusses science related to testament handwriting identification. Using the basic theories of handwriting identification, that is writing habits, stability, and reflection, the author analyzes some common handwriting styles, summarizes and elaborates their features. It also includes the general characteristics of handwriting identification, the features of imitation handwriting and the properties of other testament handwriting that are changed due to objective conditions. The significance of this part lies in its supplementing of the existing theoretical results. It helps summarize and establish a systematic study over the characteristics and laws of testament handwriting, and provides reference for solving problems encountered in testament handwriting identification process.The last part elaborates the key points and methods of testament handwriting identification and it is also the most important part of this essay. In the context of the theory and practice, two points are discussed. One is about the general difficulties that may be encountered during the testament handwriting identification. These questions often hinder the work of smooth handwriting identification and should be highly valued. Another point is to conduct a comprehensive and detailed research on the method of testament handwriting identification, including the general approach, the features of imitation handwriting and the properties of other testament handwriting that are changed due to objective conditions.Content in this section has a strong practical significance, because it systematically discusses the general approaches of testament handwriting identification, and mainly focuses on approaches related to the imitation handwriting and testament handwriting that are changed due to objective conditions. All this would provide specific identification steps reference for judges.