Property Rights of Spouses in the Case of Cross-border Inheritance

Abstract

This article analyzes the practical and doctrinal problems associated with the documentation and determination of the scope of rights belonging to the surviving spouse in the event of international inheritance. These relations are at the junction of inheritance and family law, which causes difficulties in determining the law regulating these relations. In preparing the article, general scientific and special legal methods were used. In order to ensure the logical structure of the narrative, groups of problematic issues are distinguished, on the correct solution of which the final determination of the scope of the rights belonging to the surviving spouse depends. It is demonstrated that the application of the law of different states to inheritance relations and to property relations of spouses may result in a violation of the balance of the rights of the spouse and other heirs. The article substantiates the need to plan inheritance, if it is expected to be tied to more than one legal order, conclusion is made that it is necessary to expand the discretion in the international inheritance plan by providing an opportunity to choose the applicable law, and analyzes the potential value of the inheritance contract for ordering complex legal relations.