Family and Legal Succession in Romania – A Conclusion

Abstract

We conducted research from October 2011 up to November 2016 on the evolution of the family concept and its influence on the legal succession order in Romania. Our scope was to provide an in depth analysis of the complex social, historical, philosophical and religious factors that worked together in modern and post‐modern Romanian civil law history, in order to evaluate the answer given by the recently enacted civil code of 2011. The paper hereby can give an idea on the conclusions we drawn at the end of our work. It argues mainly if the new provisions are covering all the aspects drawn into practice by the family – in its traditional and recent presentations. We focus on the successive versions of the civil code’s Book dedicated to the Law of successions, part of them being authored by ourselves. We take into account the recent evolutions in the Family law and in the Law of successions of several European and non‐ European countries, with a special accent on France and the Canadian province of Quebec – who deeply influenced the former and the present Romanian civil codification. The research ends with a set of conclusions leading to de lege ferenda propositions, meant to improve the actual state of the new Romanian civil code on the emphasized subject. They are meant to satisfy the specific needs of the present day Romanian society and to keep in touch with the tendencies we drawn out of the experience of comparative law of successions.