The Coexistence of the Legal Inheritance with the Testamentary Inheritance

Abstract

The research surprises the cases and the conditions in which the legal inheritance coexists with the testamentary inheritance. In the period of the old roman law the testamentary inheritance was priority, because the gratified successor through the will for a part of the inheritance was extending the vocation for a part of the inheritance of which de cujus didn’t dispose of. In the actual legislation, the legal inheritance coexists with the testamentary inheritance in some cases, so that a part of the inheritance is sent to the gratified one based on the will and the other part is sent to the legal heir through the virtue of the law. The cases in which the inheritance can be legal or testamentary are different, because the sping of the successoral vocation is the law or the will of the one who lets his fortune (de cujus). Therefore, the two types of inheritance can exist at the same time not only when the deceased disposes of a part of his fortune by will, but also when the will contains legates which consume the full successoral mass. The coexistence of the two forms of inheritance represents the result of the bound between the freedom of the will with the instituted protection by law of the mandatory heir.