The institute of inheritance by right of the representation

The institute of inheritance by right of representation (successio in iure representationis) is one of important institutes of inheritance law, which is part of inheritance by law. The purpose of this work is to investigate certain issues related to legal regulation of the relations that arise in inheritance by right of representation and propose ways for their solution. To achieve this purpose, the author tried to solve the following tasks: 1) To define the sources and main phases of the development of the right of representation in Roman private law; 2) To describe the development of the norms of the institute of inheritance by right of representation in the pre-revolution inheritance law; 3) To describe the features and the stages of development of the right of representation in the Soviet inheritance law; 4) To define the notion of the right of representation and establish the circle of persons inheriting by right of representation; 5) To investigate the issues related to the limitation of inheriting by right of representation; 6) To establish the difference of inheritance by right of representation from similar institutes; 7) To establish the legal nature of rights of heir’s representatives; 8) To analyse the norms of the French law regarding the inheritance by right of representation; 9) To describe the specifics of inheritance by right of representation in Germany. The structure of the work is as follows: 1) Introduction 2) The body of the document consisting of three chapters, each of which is divided into corresponding paragraphs 3) Conclusion 4) Bibliography The analysis of the doctrine, legal and normative acts, and judicial practice made within this research indicates that there are certain issues in defining the content of the right of representation, the legal nature of rights of the representatives, the advisability and reasonableness of introducing restrictions on the inheritance by right of representation. The research made it possible to arrive at the following conclusions: 1. Despite the long history of the formation and development of the institute of inheritance by right of representation that was legally established by the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, the Soviet law did not apply the institute of inheritance by right of representation on a broad basis. Therefore, in the Russian civil law successio in iure representationis is a relatively new and poorly studied phenomenon. 2. The theory of representation in the inheritance law and the concept of legal fiction do not explain the notion of the right of representation and serve as the basis for inconsistency in the resolution of issues related to the introduction of restrictions on the inheritance in iure representationis. In this regard, the right of representation makes up an independent mechanism of the inheritance by law, which is designed to provide the persons established by law with an opportunity to inherit after an ascending relative if such ascending relative had passed away before the inheritance proceedings started or simultaneously with the antecessor. 3. The Russian norms of the inheritance by right of representation are less logical and human than in the U.S., Germany or France. This is evidenced by the restrictions on the inheritance by right of representation introduced by Russian legislators that are absent from legal or normative acts and judicial practice in Germany, the U.S, and France. 4. The inheritance by right of representation is an independent mechanism to call for inheritance by law, which is different from the inheritance transmission based on such criteria as the subject composition of potential heirs as well as the moment of death of the heir. The difference between the right of representation and the substitution lies in the number of legal facts that lead to calling for inheritance as well as in the importance of the antecessor’s will in case of the substitutional bequest. 5. The representing heirs, being called for inheritance, are independent and direct successors to the antecessor. Therefore, they inherit “in their own right” and cannot be considered as the persons substituting the represented heir. 6. The advantage of the French inheritance law compared to Russian law is the right to inherit by way of representing the descendants of the persons that were recognised unworthy heirs. The German system of inheritance based on the principles of representation (Repräsentationsprinzip) and inheritance by ancestry (Erbfolge nach Stämmen) also looks more developed compared to Russian inheritance law as it does not tie the implementation of the rights of representing heirs to the personality of the represented heir. Therefore, the Russian inheritance law requires transformation to provide for the interests of representing heirs based on the achievements of the legislative technique of foreign law systems.