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France: A Chronicle of French Family Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2019

Christine Bidaud-Garon
Affiliation:
Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Law and Economics, University of New Caledonia
Hugues Fulchiron
Affiliation:
Professor, Law School, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
Bastien Baret
Affiliation:
PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
Aurore Camuzat
Affiliation:
PhD student in Law, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
Eric Fongaro
Affiliation:
Professor, College of Law, Political Science, Economics & Management, Université de Bordeaux, France
Guillaume Millerioux
Affiliation:
PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
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Summary

INHERITANCE RESERVE AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC POLICY

On 27 September 2017, the French Court of Cassation gave two important decisions about inheritance reserve and international public policy. Inheritance reserve is an important concept in French inheritance law. Article 912 of the French Civil code states that:

The reserved portion is that part of the assets and rights of the succession whose devolution, free of charges, legislation assures to certain heirs, called forced heirs, if they are called to the succession and if they accept.

International public policy is a well-known concept in international private law. It allows for the exclusion of foreign law as designated by the French conflict of laws rule, when this law violates the fundamental values of French law.

In recent years, scholars have been wondering whether the inheritance reserve was part of international public policy, especially since the EU ‘successions’ regulation entered into force on 17 August 2015. In this regulation, the conflict of laws rule designates the law of the deceased's last habitual residence, though the deceased may also choose the law applicable to his/her succession. In some common law countries, especially, the law does not contain any inheritance reserve. When the French conflict of laws rule designates the law of a common law country, must the law be ignored if it does not contain an inheritance reserve?

In both decisions of 27 September 2017, the descendants were famous composers: Maurice Jarre and Michel Colombier. Both had lived in France. They had had families and children in France, but later they divorced and moved away to live in California. They married again in this state and had other children. Their estates were composed of movable assets. So, the applicable estate law including any forced share was the Californian one. But the inheritance reserve doesn't exist in California, and the deceased had written wills to transfer their properties to their second wives and to the children from these second families. It was in order to get their inheritance reserve that the children of the first marriages brought their cases before the French judges.

In both cases, the French Court of Cassation affirmed ‘the foreign law, designated by the French conflict of laws rule, is not contrary to the French international public policy’.

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Publisher: Intersentia
Print publication year: 2019

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  • France: A Chronicle of French Family Law
    • By Christine Bidaud-Garon, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Law and Economics, University of New Caledonia, Hugues Fulchiron, Professor, Law School, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Bastien Baret, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Aurore Camuzat, PhD student in Law, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Eric Fongaro, Professor, College of Law, Political Science, Economics & Management, Université de Bordeaux, France, Guillaume Millerioux, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
  • Edited by Margaret Brinig
  • Book: International Survey of Family Law 2019
  • Online publication: 09 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780689319.009
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  • France: A Chronicle of French Family Law
    • By Christine Bidaud-Garon, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Law and Economics, University of New Caledonia, Hugues Fulchiron, Professor, Law School, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Bastien Baret, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Aurore Camuzat, PhD student in Law, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Eric Fongaro, Professor, College of Law, Political Science, Economics & Management, Université de Bordeaux, France, Guillaume Millerioux, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
  • Edited by Margaret Brinig
  • Book: International Survey of Family Law 2019
  • Online publication: 09 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780689319.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • France: A Chronicle of French Family Law
    • By Christine Bidaud-Garon, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Law and Economics, University of New Caledonia, Hugues Fulchiron, Professor, Law School, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Bastien Baret, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Aurore Camuzat, PhD student in Law, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Eric Fongaro, Professor, College of Law, Political Science, Economics & Management, Université de Bordeaux, France, Guillaume Millerioux, PhD Student, Family Law Centre, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
  • Edited by Margaret Brinig
  • Book: International Survey of Family Law 2019
  • Online publication: 09 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780689319.009
Available formats
×