Offshore: Switzerland

Abstract

The Swiss legal system is a civil law system. The rules governing the subject matter of the present survey are principally contained in the Swiss Civil Code (based primarily on Roman Law with major influence from French and German legal systems) and in the provisions of the Swiss Private International Law Act of 18 December 1987 (hereinafter SPILA), as interpreted by case decisions. ... Swiss law has the principle of unity or universality of succession; in other words there is—as a matter of principle—no distinction made between the law applicable to the devolution of moveable assets or immovable assets. Therefore the Swiss authorities will consider that the law applicable to the devolution of the estate applies to the entire estate including immovable assets located outside Switzerland, to the extent that they have jurisdiction (see below as regards jurisdiction issues). ... According to Article 90(1) of the SPILA, the estate of a deceased person who is domiciled in Switzerland at the time of his/her death is governed by Swiss law. It is possible, however, for a foreigner (who does not have Swiss nationality) who dies domiciled in Switzerland to elect that the law of his/her nationality govern the devolution of his/her estate [‘Profesio Juris’; see Article 90 (2) SPILA]. It seems even admitted that this choice of law will oust even the mandatory provisions of Swiss law relating to forced heirship (see below).