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Anonymous 14:00 - Just to be pedantic, it wasn't William IV who enacted the legislation but Victoria - the Wills Act 1837 was enacted on 3 July 1837, 13 days after Victoria ascended to the throne, and it therefore begins 'Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty...'

That said, the current formalities for executing a will do seem overly exacting and, as the case law shows, it is all too easy to fall foul of the minutiae of the law, only to find out too late that a will that was clearly intended to be valid is rendered invalid through some technicality. What we need to do is look carefully at what the Law Commission is proposing and sort the wheat from the chaff in terms of welcoming an appropriate move away from excessive technicality, whilst safeguarding against too lax an approach such as might open the door to uncertainty and disputes.