Wills, Adoptions and Inter Privatos Human Rights Effectiveness

Abstract

In Judgement of 27th April 2010 the Constitutional Spanish Court sustained that lower Courts, interpreting a testamentary clause that included only the biological offspring, had committed a break of the principle of equality. This article tries, on the one hand, to demonstrate that the issue lacks constitutional relevance, as the equality between biological and adoptive offspring is a legal requirement yet not a constitutional one. On the other hand, it explores the question of whether testamentary freedom can be limited by other rights, and in particular, by the principle of equalityIn Judgement of 27th April 2010 the Constitutional Spanish Court sustained that lower Courts, interpreting a testamentary clause that included only the biological offspring, had committed a break of the principle of equality. This article tries, on the one hand, to demonstrate that the issue lacks constitutional relevance, as the equality between biological and adoptive offspring is a legal requirement yet not a constitutional one. On the other hand, it explores the question of whether testamentary freedom can be limited by other rights, and in particular, by the principle of equality.