Research On The Order Of Legal Succession System In China

Inheritance law has been promulgated for nearly 40 years in China,and has not been revised.With the continuous development of reform and opening up,the current inheritance law can not fully meet the new form of family inheritance,nor can it completely solve the new disputes arising in the process of inheritance.The purpose of the legal succession order is to protect the inheritance rights of those who have marital,consanguineous and supportive relationships with the heirs,and to fully respect the desire of the heirs to dispose of the inheritance.However,in recent years,with the increasing per capita wealth holdings,legal inheritance disputes have also increased.Our inheritance law has lagged behind because of its long history,among which the legal succession order is the key point worth revising.At present,there are some problems in the legal succession order of our country,such as the inappropriate position of succession order of spouse,the rationality of the legal succession right of widowed daughter-in-law and widowed son-in-law,and the insufficient hierarchy of the current legal succession order in our country.These problems lead to the current legal succession order gradually not adapting to the real life and divorcing from the social reality.The root causes of these problems lie in the changes of population structure and family structure,the great abundance of heritage,the progress of our thinking and the social pension problems brought about by the aging society.The main representative countries of Hong Kong,Macao,Taiwan and the two major legal systems in the world have relatively perfect legislative provisions on the legal succession order system.The legal succession order system of our country can be amended from the following aspects on the basis of drawing lessons from overseas beneficial experience: first,to determine the legislative principle of perfecting the legal succession order,on the premise of perfecting the relevant civil legal system,to adhere to the legislative principle of protecting vulnerable groups and fair and reasonable;second,to expand the legal succession order,parents as the first order to participate in the status of inheritance is not.Change the legal succession order of brothers and sisters,grandparents and grandparents to make appropriate arrangements,including the descendant relatives less than fourth-class relatives in the scope of inheritance;Third,further improve the relevant provisions of the legal inheritance system of spouses,take the spouse as an irregular successor to participate in the distribution of inheritance,increase the share of the succession of spouse without a fixed order,for the elderly spouse.Fourth,cancel the first succession right of widowed daughter-in-law and widowed son-in-law,and give appropriate compensation to widowed daughter-in-law and widowed son-in-law who have fulfilled their maintenance obligations.