Past and future of testamentary executor

Abstract

Few civil law institutions have such a flexible scope as the position of executor. They can be of the minimal or outmost importance: they can play an insignificant role or, on the contrary, be the principal star as nominee of the estate. The role of the executor encounters frequent legal hur- dles, but through a less rigid approach of the system of compulsory inheritance and benefit of inventory, the executor would become (as in the Anglo-Saxon or German model) the inheritance key element.