Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.3935/zpfz.76.3.3
Between the Protection of the Surviving Spouse and the Preservation of Family Property: Testamentary Dispositions in Favour of the Spouse Under the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB)
Mirela Krešić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7065-7129
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
This paper analyses testamentary dispositions in favour of the spouse in the Croatian-Slavonian legal area during the period of application of the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB). Starting from the statutory regulation of the surviving spouse’s position under the ABGB, and drawing on probate records of district courts in Samobor and Velika Gorica, published case law of the Ban’s Table and the Table of Seven, as well as contemporary legal scholarship, the paper examines the ways in which testators used testamentary dispositions to adapt the statutory law of succession to concrete family and economic relationships. The analysis shows that testamentary dispositions in favour of the wife were most commonly used to expand usufructuary rights, less frequently to transfer ownership, and in certain cases to exclude more remote blood relatives from succession. In this way testators adjusted the legal position of the spouse in circumstances in which the formal gender neutrality of succession law did not necessarily ensure actual economic security after the death of one spouse. At the same time, the paper demonstrates that the legal position of women within the succession system was not uniform. While testamentary dispositions in favour of the wife were more often aimed at securing economic stability and preserving the continuity of household life, dispositions concerning daughters frequently served to preserve family property within the circle of blood relatives. More broadly, the paper shows that testamentary practice constituted an important field through which the formal statutory system was adapted to actual family and property relations.
Ključne riječi
Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB); testamentary dispositions; surviving spouse; usufruct; Croatian-Slavonian legal area
Hrčak ID:
349761
URI
Datum izdavanja:
24.7.2026.
Posjeta: 0 *