Research On Choice Of Law Rules Of Regulation Of European Union On Succession

The Regulation of European Union on Succession is a recently advanced legislation in the field of the application of laws to foreign-related succession and its core lies in its choice of law rules. This regulation chooses a relatively complete unitary system and the typical legislation model which combines traditional conflict rules with the doctrine of the most significant relationship in the general rule. Regarding to the disposition of property upon death, the regulation allows a person to make a limited choice of law and provides the validity of the choice-of-law act separately. Meanwhile, the regulation distinguishes the agreements as to succession from ordinary dispositions of property upon death and their admissibility and substantive validity would subject to different conflict rules. Besides, there are systematic rules on the issues of the appointment and powers of an administrator of the estate, commorientes, estate without a claimant, renvoi and the rest. Compared to the regulation, the chapter of succession of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Application of Laws to Foreign-Related Civil Relations does not adopt advanced choice-of-law approaches and several provisions are not so appropriate. Despite the fact that the social background of the regulation is different from that of China, which means its rules cannot be transplanted directly to China, there are still excellent choice-of-law approaches and legislative skills worth learning.The first chapter of this article introduces the legislative background and procedure and the main contents of the regulation. The major choice of law rules of the regulation will be explained, analyzed and commented in Chapter Two. The last chapter draws lessons from the regulation and puts forward several suggestions on the revision of China’s related legislation.