# Spatial scope of application

## Warning !

It is essential to draw the attention of practitioners to the following point. The special conflict rules in matters of validity of gifts do have consequences for the spatial scope of application of the Regulation. In the future, the practitioner may have to apply the Regulation at least partially, even if there is no longer any international element at the time of death. It is enough that there should have been an international element at the time when the agreement as to succession was established for the rules of conflict in matters of dispositions of property upon death to apply to this instrument. As we will see, we must place ourselves on the day when the instrument was established to determine validity.

## Example

A French couple residing in Germany establishes a joint mutual will in accordance with German legislation. They then return to France, where one of them dies. The absence of any international element on the day of the death is unquestionable: the deceased is French and resides in France. We might therefore be tempted to stick to the provisions of French substantive law. However, as the will was established at a time when there was an international element, there are grounds to apply Article 25 of the Regulation.