THE PRINCIPLES OF CONFUSION AND SEPARATION OF ASSETS IN THE SPANISH INHERITANCE LAW

Abstract

Inheritance Law must take into account that modern society founded on credit could not survive if debts were extinguished upon the death of debtors. This is gives rise to the two main historical and geographical systems of organising inheritance that must, of course, be taken into account when formulating our opinions and analysing the different problems discussed. These two systems are summarised in positive legislation inspired by the idea of ensuring the equal transmission of the assets and liabilities of the deceased, whereby the heirs become actively and passively responsible for the transmissible legal relationships after the person has died. Under other legal systems, the settlement of the debts of the deceased is a prior and fundamental operation that precedes the appropriation of the remaining estate. It goes without saying that we are referring to the two well-known systems: the Roman system and the Anglo-Saxon system. In our view, the distances between the Roman system, on which our Civil Code is based, and the Anglo-Saxon system, in terms of the settlement of inherited debts, are smaller than we are often hastily told, since both systems seek to secure and harmonise the interests of creditors and heirs, and that is fully guaranteed in both systems.