The UK and the European Succession Regulation: Fog over the Channel – Potential Pitfalls for the Unwary?
Pages | 86-93 |
Date | 01 January 2018 |
Author | |
Published date | 01 January 2018 |
DOI | 10.3366/elr.2018.0456 |
The European Succession Regulation (“the Regulation”)
This note seeks to set out some of the practical difficulties. In particular, the apparent flexibility of the Regulation is a potential trap for UK nationals or residents and their lawyers.
The Regulation provides a complete code of private international law to be applied not only between those EU states to which it extends but also between those states and third countries (such as, in this respect, the UK) to which it does not. It sets out the rules for conflicts between substantive national succession laws as well as conflicts between the private international laws relative to national succession laws. The rules allocating jurisdiction and recognising judgments relative to succession apply only to courts in states where the Regulation is law. This matters because, in identifying the law applicable to a succession, the Regulation does not discriminate between the succession laws of such states and the succession laws of third countries.
Once the applicable law has been determined, all matters relating to capacity, influence and formality concerning a will are referred to it.
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