Article On Conflict Rules in Matters of Succession

Talia Einhorn (Professor, Tel Aviv University – Faculty of Management) recently published an article entitled, The Coordinating Role of Israeli Conflict Rules in Matters of Succession – Comparative Perspectives.  Provided below is an abstract of the article:

This paper studies the coordinating function of the Israeli Private International Law (PIL) rules in matters of succession, drawing comparative perspectives from European states – in particular England, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland – and the European Union (EU), in which, since the coming into effect of the Treaty of Amsterdam, 2005, and even more since the coming into effect of the Treaty of Lisbon, 2009, that substituted the rules pertaining to PIL by Article 81 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU has acquired extensive powers to adopt legislation in matters of private international law, which is directly applicable in the EU Member States. Accordingly, the EU adopted Regulation 650/2012 concerning the PIL rules in matters of succession (Rome IV) (hereafter – “EU Succession Regulation”). This regulation will apply in most EU Member States as of 17 August 2015 (except for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark that opted not to be subject to the Rome IV regime, as allowed in the protocols annexed to the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).

Israel has not codified its conflict rules. The Israeli Draft Civil Code does not contain a chapter on this subject either. Most Israeli statutes contain only substantive law rules, with just a fraction containing isolated PIL rules, which do not cover the subject-matter as a whole. The Succession Law, 5725-1965, is the only statute that covers PIL rather comprehensively in its chapter seven (§§ 135-144). Undoubtedly, this is due to the fact that Professor Edoardo Vitta, a renowned PIL scholar, was a member of the Succession Law Drafting Committee.