The Nature And Legal Validity Of Joint Wills

During marriage,if spouses execute a Joint Will to dispose community property,then the validity of the Joint Will is key to Succession.The Law of Succession of the People's Republic of China is unclear as to joint wills.In judicial practice,there are different judgments.In the theory field,there are Affirmative doctrine and Denied doctrine.Considering the above,this article is to study the nature and validity of Joint Wills,and to propose the opinions of the author.This article has preface,conclusion and four sections as below:The first section is “General illustration of Joint Wills”.It clarifies the definition of the Joint will and its nature and categories,laying the foundation for further study on the issue of legal validity of Joint Wills.The Second section is “Legislation mod of Joint Wills domestic and overseas”.It analyzes the cause of the foreign legislation mod admitting legal validity of Joint Wills and the mod denying legal validity of Joint Wills,introduces the current legislation and the revision draft of Succession law.In practice,because of the lack of clear regulation,similar cases had different judgments.The Third Section is “The legal nature and legal validity of Joint Wills”.On the nature of Joint Wills,there are unilateral act theory,bilateral act theory,contract act theory and joint act theory,etc.Consequently,there are Affirmative doctrine and Denied doctrine on the issue of validity of Joint Wills.The fourth Section is “ Author's Opinion on nature and legal validity of Joint Wills”.Author holds that executing a Joint Wills is a joint legal activity,a Joint Will should beadmitted as legally valid,and should be considered based on when the will become effective.This section will also analyze the revision and revocation issue of Joint Wills when spouses are both alive and when one spouse survives the other.