Cross-border Succession issues and the attempts of Serbian legislation to be harmonized with the European legislation on succession matters

Abstract

The study deals with the importance of harmonization processes related to the succession rules in the European Union. During the examination of the harmonization processes, a particular attention has been paid to migration, which nowadays has a deep impact on inheritance cases. In this regard the study demonstrates how the judicial cooperation is being realized in the European Union when it comes to succession-related issues. Among these, the study examines the current norms of the Serbian Act on private international law, which, from some aspects, has an obsolete system considering the conflict of laws rules in matters of succession with an international element. Namely, these rules are not harmonized with those of the European Succession Regulation, which means that the Serbian IPL system does not currently follow the European trends in legislation. Furthermore, it does not take into consideration certain current phenomena, especially the international migration and globalization. At the same time, Serbia is working hard to achieve a certain level of legal harmonization with the EU legislation. One proof of the harmonization attempts is the draft of the new PIL act of Serbia. The new concept of the conflict of laws rules and the new systemic approach of connecting factors is nearly completely identical with that of European legislative trends, especially regarding the scope of succession. If the draft act comes into force, it will mean, beyond any doubt, a giant leap for the country towards the European Union.