Study On The Problems Of Stepchild's Inheritance

Inheritance is a significant civil activity in the social life. As an important law which adjusts property relationship based on personal relations in private law, Inheritance Law plays an important role in the national life. With the diversifying of the social life and changing of people's ideas of family, digamous families have been increasing. It has been stipulated in the current Inheritance Law that the stepchild who supported or was supported by the decedent has the same rights of inheritance with legitimate children. The rule plays sort of active role in protecting stepchild's inheritance, but it also has some problems such as the conflicting de jure with some other relevant laws, difficulty in operating and executing the terms under the conditions prescribed by law and poor protecting for the benefits of minor in the clause.This thesis firstly analyzed the stepchild's inheritance in principle with the concept that the relation between stepparents and stepchild is an important kind of family relations. Showing in inheritance, the stepchild who supported or was supported by the decedent has double rights of inheritance to their stepparents and natural parents. Secondly, it analyzed the current legislation of stepchild's inheritance in the other countries and the areas like Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. And the thesis concentrated on the shortage of legislation in stepchild's inheritance. There is confliction de jure between the current law and some relevant laws in stepchild's inheritance which caused some confusion in law. In the last part it comes up with the suggestion to rebuilt the stepchild's inheritance in legislation that on the premise of ordaining stepchild's inheritance, it should be adjusted that not only the stepchild's inheritance to their stepparents and to their natural parents, but also other successor's status according to whether their relationship is close or not, so that it would insure the proper status of stepchild, protect the decedent's will and bring the purpose of realizing stepchild's inheritance into effect reasonably.