On The Scope Of The Heirs At Law In China

The scope of heirs at law in our country has been confirmed for nearly thirty years and played a great role in adjusting the relation of law. But with the development of economy, the property owned by people has increased greatly, together with the result of the one-child policy, family structure has changed profoundly. The fact that relatives in second-degree can be heirs at law can not meet the practical needs of people’s life. So, it is inevitable to revise relevant laws.First part is about theoretical interpretation of the scope of heirs at law. Fixed scope of heirs at law can help the family to raise children and support parents, and create a harmonious domestic relationship. Our scope of heirs at law has profound basis of ethics, of which family is the footstone of inheritance and has general moral principles, which composed by marriage relationship and blood relationship. On this basis, this paper analyzes the theoretical value of the scope of heirs at law to guide the study of specific problems. Second part analyzes indigenous elements and foreign law elements in our scope of heirs at law from a historical perspective. Third part is about some specific questions. Firsty, study the scope of heirs at law based on marriage relationship, including opposite-sex marriages and same-sex couples. And we should revise relevant provisions on opposite-sex marriages and accept homosexual partners to inherit in same-sex couples. Secondly, study the scope of heirs at law based on blood relationship, contains how to determine the legal status of the children under reproductive technologies, and whether grandchildren or maternal grandchildren has inherent right to inherit, and the scope of collateral heir is too narrow, which only contains second-degree collateral relatives by blood and should be broadened to forth-degree collateral relatives by blood. Lastly, study the protection of affinity’s property right in inheritance, and affinity’s inheritance right is unreasonable. Widowed daughter-in-law and son-in-law who voluntarily provide for their spouse’s parents shouldn’t be the first order inheritor, the current legal stipulation should be repealed and accept appropriate share system.Expanding the scope of heirs at law can arouse the enthusiasm for production, maintain the family harmony, and will realize the value of law and link up with international law. Besides, it is expected that the study will be beneficial to revise the inheritance law in China.