Nephews as Subjects of Inheritance: Theoretical and Practical Aspects

Abstract

The article is focused on the problems of legal succession by a special category of lawful heirs – nephews. The analysis of scientific works, the authors of which studied specific features of legal succession, has been carried out. All stages of legal succession in accordance with the Civil Code of Ukraine have been listed. The current legislation, court decisions, legal doctrine have been analyzed; and it has been established that inheritance by nephews has problems in practical application. The procedure of inheritance by nephews according to the right of representation has been studied taking into account that it currently remains one of the problematic issues in practical application. It has been established that it is the way how the legislator protects the property rights and interests of the latter. The authors have determined that if there are several lawful heirs (nephew, niece), the share of the deceased testator is divided equally between lawful heirs. It has been noted that inheritance law as an institution of civil law occupies a leading place in the system of protecting human rights and interests. It is due to the fact that hereditary relations began to be formed and protected by Roman lawyers. Both our state and many foreign states still pay much attention to improving the legislation in the field of inheritance law. The authors have noted that the relevance of the above institution is the fact that the subject matter of these legal relations are always property rights and responsibilities, and their protection depends on the proper implementation of the law enforcement function of state authorities. Given that the legal consequences for lawful heirs occur after the death of the testator, the main task of state authorities is to ensure the proper transfer of inheritance to lawful heirs. The authors of the paper have focused on the way how to prove the family and other relations of lawful heirs with the testator, because it is an important aspect of inheritance relations, since the correct establishment of family relationship influences the legal transfer of inheritance. It has been established that there are practical and theoretical problems in these legal relations, which are related to the procedure of inheritance transfer to the above-mentioned subjects.

Keywords

• inheritance law
• legal succession
• lawful heirs
• right of representation.