DEVIATIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF THE UNITY OF SUCCESSION IN THE EU REGULATION ON SUCCESSION

Abstract

Inheritance should be regulated by a predictable law that is closely connected to it. For the purpose of legal certainty and to avoid fragmentation of the succession, that law should regulate total inheritance, regardless of whether the property is situated in a Member State of the European Union or in a third state. EU Regulation on succession, in most cases, follows the principle of the unity of succession, however, it departs from it when a third country is involved in the inheritance proceeding. Thus, in cases related to third countries, the establishment of the correspondence between the jurisdiction and the applicable law has shown impossible, since the allocation of jurisdiction between the courts of the Member States in accordance with that Regulation does not take into account the possibility that in such cases the courts of third countries, with which inheritance has a significant link, have jurisdiction. In these cases, therefore, by division of jurisdiction on the courts of the Member State and the courts of third countries, it may come to fragmentation of succession, which entails the risk of parallel proceedings with possible different outcomes. The aim of the paper is to analyze in which cases the provisions of the Regulation result in fragmentation of succession and to suggest possible solutions. Finally, the proposed changes would enable the parties to agree that the courts of third countries of the chosen law have jurisdiction in settling the issue of inheritance, under the condition that these courts are then competent to decide on succession as a whole. In addition, the introduction of specific rules on the recognition and enforcement of decisions on succession issued by the courts of third countries in the Regulation would ensure greater uniformity in the treatment of these countries in relation to Member States and thus a greater degree of appreciation for a unified approach to succession.