Study On The System Of Spouse' Right Of Inheritance

Spouse is the partner of common life, and is the core and basis of family relation, so the stability of spouse relation and the protection of spouse right are being paid attention to in modern law more and more. At present, almost all countries have specifically stipulated spouse s right of inheritance, despite their legal systems. The study on the spouse' right of inheritance takes utmost importance in theory and practice for the improvement of the inheritance law of China, especially under the background of civil code being drafted.In addition to the preface and conclusion, this article includes three chapters.Chapter one: The evolution and basis theory of the System of Spouse' right of inheritance. The trend that the spouse' right of inheritance has being promoted and consolidated is testified from the histories all over the world. Owing to constantly development of the idea of equality between men and women, spouse, especially female spouse, has experienced the process from having almost no the right of inheritance to enjoying the right of inheritance conditionally to enjoying it unconditionally. That spouse enjoys the right of inheritance must meets prerequisite that the right of inheritance of spouse derives from the legitimate marital relationship. The spouse' right of inheritance derives from the legitimate marital relationship. Spouse is the core of the family life and cousinhood.Chapter two: introduces and reviews the provisions related to the right of inheritance of spouse in the major countries and regions of the common law and the civil law. It centres on introducing the provisions related to the right of inheritance of spouse in UK and USA where the law systems belong to the common law and German, France and Japan where the law systems belong to the civil law and Hongkong, Macau and Taiwan of China. Comparing the above systems, and reviewing them from the angles of the statutory succession and the testate succession will benefit the improvement of the system of the right of inheritance of spouse in China.Chapter three: involves the status and improvement of the system of the spouse' right of inheritance in China. The article briefly describes the system of the spouse' right of inheritance in China and the problems in the enforcement. Complies with the trend of the legislation of the world, then promotes some ideas for improving the spouse' right of inheritance in China from the angles of the statutory succession and the testate succession by referring to the foreign legislation experiences and in light of our national condition.