Introduction [European Regulation in matters of international successions]

Introduction

As a general rule, Article 1(1)^[1] begins by indicating that the Regulation shall apply only to the civil dimension of succession law. It does not apply to matters of revenue, customs or administrative matters (Point 10 of the Preamble^[2] to the Regulation).

In addition and more specifically, Article 1(2)^[3] lists 12 items that are excluded from the scope of application of the Regulation.

Warning :

Vigilance is required, however, as some of these items are not the subject of total exclusions.

Whatever the case, these are questions that are linked in one way or another with succession law and which will mostly be governed by national rules of conflict.

Notes

Article 1 § 1
"This Regulation shall apply to succession to the estates of deceased persons. It shall not apply to revenue, customs or administrative matters."
Point 10 of the recital of the Regulation
- This Regulation should not apply to revenue matters or to administrative matters of a public-law nature. It should therefore be for national law to determine, for instance, how taxes and other liabilities of a public-law nature are calculated and paid, whether these be taxes payable by the deceased at the time of death or any type of succession-related tax to be paid by the estate or the beneficiaries. It should also be for national law to determine whether the release of succession property to beneficiaries under this Regulation or the recording of succession property in a register may be made subject to the payment of taxes.
Article 1 §2
The following shall be excluded from the scope of this Regulation:
- a) the status of natural persons, as well as family relationships and relationships deemed by the law applicable to such relationships to have comparable effects;
- b) the legal capacity of natural persons, without prejudice to point (c) of Article 23(2) and to Article 26;
- c) questions relating to the disappearance, absence or presumed death of a natural person;
- d) questions relating to matrimonial property regimes and property regimes of relationships deemed by the law applicable to such relationships to have comparable effects to marriage;
- e) maintenance obligations other than those arising by reason of death;
- f) the formal validity of dispositions of property upon death made orally;
- g) property rights, interests and assets created or transferred otherwise than by succession, for instance by way of gifts, joint ownership with a right of survivorship, pension plans, insurance contracts and arrangements of a similar nature, without prejudice to point (i) of Article 23(2);
- h) questions governed by the law of companies and other bodies, corporate or unincorporated, such as clauses in the memoranda of association and articles of association of companies and other bodies, corporate or unincorporated, which determine what will happen to the shares upon the death of the members;
- i) the dissolution, extinction and merger of companies and other bodies, corporate or unincorporated;
- j) the creation, administration and dissolution of trusts;
- k) the nature of rights in rem; and
- l) any recording in a register of rights in immovable or movable property, including the legal requirements for such recording, and the effects of recording or failing to record such rights in a register.