Determination of the law applicable to inheritance legal relations

Determination of the law applicable to inheritance legal relations.

In international private law, there are two approaches to determining the law applicable to inheritance complicated by a foreign element:

1) The principle of splitting the inheritance status.

This principle assumes the application of various conflict of laws bindings depending on the type of inherited property:

✓ in the case of movable property – lex patriae (law of citizenship) or lex domicilii (law of place of residence);

✓ in the case of immovable property – lex rei sitae (location of property).

This approach is enshrined in Russian law: thus, according to Article 1224 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the binding lex domicilii applies to movable property, and lex rei sitae to immovable property.

2) The principle of unity of the inheritance status.

This principle assumes the application of one conflict of laws link to the inheritance of the entire property mass. This approach is applied mainly at the EU level, where with the adoption of Regulation No. 650/2012, both jurisdiction and applicable law in inheritance legal relations began to be determined by lex domicilii.

NB It should also be noted that there is unification at the stage of recognition and enforcement of decisions in the field of inheritance law due to the regulated procedure for the recognition of notarial acts and the European certificate of inheritance, accepted by EU countries without exequatur.

Source: E. Mamedov. Certificate of inheritance with a cross-border effect: the experience of the European Union. Journal of Civil Law, No. 4 / July - August / 2023.