THE EUROPEAN SUCCESSION PROJECT

When I told Adrian Briggs, Professor of private international law at Oxford, that the European Union was planning to tackle cross-border successions, he was not very impressed. He was rather surprised that, after the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital, the “free movement of the dead, previously only seen in cinema and by those who believe in zombies”, had also become one of the policies of the European Union. Indeed at first sight it is surprising that the European Union has discovered succession law – an area of law which has been constantly neglected by the European legislator. Following the 1968 Brussels Convention on jurisdiction and enforcement in civil and commercial matters most European private international law instruments expressly exclude “wills and succession” from their material scope. However, since the Vienna Action Plan of 1998, the rules for international successions are officially on the European agenda. Based on a detailed comparative study by the German Notary Institute, in 2005 the Commission published a Green Paper on wills and succession identifying “a clear need for the adoption of harmonised European rules”. After further consultations and negotiations the Commission submitted, in October 2009, a formal Proposal for a Succession Regulation. It is currently unclear whether and when the Succession Regulation will be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council; the only interesting news is that the United Kingdom and Ireland, which together with Denmark enjoy a special status in the European cooperation in the area of freedom, security and justice, have so far not exercised their right to opt into the succession project.

The Succession Proposal reveals ambitious legislative plans. The rules proposed by the European Commission go far beyond the classic areas of private international law, ie choice of law (Article 16 et seq of the Proposal), jurisdiction (Article 3 et seq of the Proposal) and recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions (Article 29 et seq of the Proposal). The Succession Proposal also aims to improve the cross-border administration and devolution of estates.