Research On The Establishment Of Heritage Manager System In China

The existing inheritance law of the People’s Republic of China was issued in1985when China was still in the initial stage of reform and opening up. At that time, planned economy system was playing a dominant role while people’s living level was relatively low. During the past28years, family relations as well as property relations in China have undergone significant changes as China’s economy and society develops. This change also makes one drawback of the method in solving heritage disputes in real life, an overwhelming emphasis on principle and simplification, more and more obvious.The famous Hou Yaowen inheritance dispute case, together with Ji Xianlin heritage dispute which is somewhat complicated and confusing, indicate such a situation:The heritage, before division, may enter into an unstable state after the death of the decedent. Right holders including heir at law, heir at will, devise and creditors, are unlikely to be sufficiently protected, even worse, they may suffer violations of their rights when certain particular situation occurs, especially when the ownership cannot be unidentified, or there is a lack of management of the heritage or even more serious, there is a malicious occupation. As a consequence, most of the concerned parties are forced to solve inheritance disputes through litigation.Based on an analysis of some central issues of inheritance disputes, this paper comes to a conclusion that the key to improve the aforementioned situations is to establish the heritage manager system and improve the existing inheritance law system where principle and simplification are overemphasized. Undoubtedly, establishing such a system needs to learn from both domestic and overseas hands-on experience of the legalization of heritage manager mechanism, with additional consideration of Chinese characteristics in society and humanity. Under the background of the forthcoming modification of Chinese inheritance law, this paper will make an analysis about the fundamental theories of the heritage manager system, upon which not only the basic framework will be established but also the specific scheme will be conceived..