Keywords
conservatorship, involuntary servitude, Thirteenth Amendment, United States Constitution, conflict of interest, Guardianship Bill of Rights, Guardianship
Abstract
What happens when the conflict of interest relates to the conservatee’s substantial talents and their potential earnings? In this circumstance, a conservator has a perverse incentive to profit off of and coerce their conservatee into labor which serves to benefit the conservator—a kind of involuntary servitude that would seem to implicate the plain text of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
This Note proceeds in three parts. Part I describes the history of conservatorships, why they were created, and the problematic issues that have arisen from the conservatorship system. Part IIanalyzes how the lack of meaningful judicial oversight creates the harmful potential for dynamics that arguably implicate the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on involuntary servitude. Finally, Part III suggests a step forward to addressing the problem: a Guardianship Bill of Rights.
Recommended Citation
Jesse Long,
Conservatorship: An Enabler of Involuntary Servitude,
78 Ark. L. Rev.
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr/vol78/iss3/5