The Successional Indignity in the New Romanian Civil Code (Law No. 287/2009) Conceptual Premises and Practical Perspectives

Abstract

The new Romanian Civil Code changes the previous perspective of the institution of successional indignity, which was applicable, as a requirements in order to be able to inherit, only in cases of intestacy (ab intestat succession). In the New Civil Code (articles 958-961), successional indignity becomes a general condition for inheritance, applicable to both in cases of intestacy as well as in cases of succession by will. The institution of indignity has the effect of depriving the successor of the right to receive a determined succession belonging to a person to whom he has become undignified by committing serious actions, as limited by the legal norm. The article analyzes the particularities of the successional indignity and the New Civil Code unitary regulation of the indignity pertaining to legal heirs, and that applicable to successors by will. The article analyzes both the particularities of de jure indignity (ope legis, Article 958 of the New Civil Code) and the particularities of the judicial indignity, declared by the court of law (Article 959 of the New Civil Code), as well as the effects of inheritance. The article analyzes the possibility of removing the effects of indignity and the conditions for pardoning the undignified heir, with new implications regulated in Article 961 of the New Civil Code.