Study On The Law Application Of American Testamentary Succession

With the deepening of internationalization, transnational civil and commercial exchanges are increasingly frequent. It has became a norm that citizens owned property in foreign countries,which followed by a series of multinational testamentary succession cases. Multinational testamentary succession usually involves two or more countries in the matter of applying law, therefore, different choices of law may cause different results, which has a significant influence on the rights of parties concerned.Hence, a further study on the law application of testamentary succession is worthy of attention. Researches on that matter can reduce the conflicts of law, also promote international exchanges and cooperation.The United States of America is one of the countries with a developed testamentary succession system, which has mature and concrete rules. In addition, America has a federal system, which suggests conflict of laws between or among states could happen.Hence, compared to other countries, United States has a more complicated situation in the conflict of law about testamentary succession. Therefore, through the analysis of American applicable rules in testamentary succession, the author will put forward suggestions to Chinese testamentary succession law application.The first part of the article is an overview of the law application in testamentary succession system to make everyone has a certain understanding; the second part is divided into two subparts including conflicts of law between states or countries; subpart one discusses different regulations in Uniform Probate Code,Louisiana Civil Code and law of other states; subpart two compares testamentary capacity, testamentary forms, the revocation of wills in the USA and other countries; the third part is an analysis of law application in testamentary succession, the rationality of which should be learned; the fourth part of the article is an analysis of Chinese testamentary succession law application,besides the author put forwards that "the principle of autonomy of will"should be strengthened in Chinese testamentary succession.Rules of law application in America include "the most significant relationship principle"and "the principle of autonomy of will". The application of "the most significant relationship principle" in China could further expand discretion of the judge, which is advantageous to the development of testamentary succession system and fit for testators’ expectations. The enhancement of "the principle of autonomy of the will"could reduce law conflicts and promote the transfer of properties.