La Protection des Differents Membres de la Famille par le Droit Familial Patrimonial en Europe

Abstract

Abstract:In spite of largely different techniques in family property law of the many European countries in protecting family members (continental Europe has well structured matrimonial property regimes and a reserved portions in the estate of the deceased, which both are nearly unknown in Anglo-Saxon law), the author discovers similar trends in the pursued objectives: upgrading the succession status of the surviving spouse at the expense of the rights of the blood family and abolition of the discrimination of children born out of wedlock. Those trends should be encouraged. Few are the countries granting some protection to the ‘recent family members’ like the surviving unmarried partner and the children of a ‘recomposed family’, not affiliated to the deceased. The author is in favour of a pan-European equilibrated solution with more respect for the possible wish of the deceased to protect these recent members or to guarantee them a reasonable minimum protection in the absence of any provision by the deceased if they need it.