THE EUROPEAN SUCCESSION REGULATION: THE RULE OF ADAPTATION OF RIGHTS IN REM AND THE LIMITS SET BY THE LEX REI SITAE. SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CERTIFICATE OF SUCCESSION.

Abstract

On 27 July 2012 Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession was published. This initiative belongs within the context of the basic freedoms and fundamental rights that shape the laws of the European Union, such as the right to free circulation of persons and the right to protection of property rights. These rights and freedoms must be applied in today's context of a reality in which the international mobility of persons is constantly on the rise, along with a mounting number of international successions. The solutions offered at present by the domestic legislation of European countries are fragmentary at best, divergent and incoherent at worst. To address this panorama the new European Succession Regulation has arisen, which attempts to set uniform rules of international private law in matters of authorities' jurisdiction, the applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions and authentic acts in matters of succession. The regulation creates a novel European certificate of successions that combines all the points mentioned above. The object of this article is to analyze fundamentally the delimitation of the applicable law, the limits the lex rei sitae sets on the lex successionis, the rule of adaptation of rights in rem as a technique for harmonizing the lex rei sitae with the lex successionis, and the influence of this on the recognition and enforcement of decisions, on the new concept of the European certificate of succession, and on the relationships of the European certificate of successions with property registration systems.