Will Substitutes im Europäischen IPR

Many European legal systems know lifetime agreements that aim at a post-mortem distribution of assets and therefore belong to the so-called will substitutes. Gifts on death and contracts in favour of third parties on death are also such legal transactions. Both forms are between the law of succession and the law of contracts of obligation, so that for the conflict of laws both a qualification under the law of succession and a qualification under the law of contracts of obligation and accordingly a connection according to the provisions of the Rome I Regulation or the European Succession Regulation would be possible. Which qualification of lifetime gifts on death leads to appropriate and legally secure results? Charlotte Wendland examines this on a comparative law basis, taking into account international procedural law and the most recent case law of the European Court of Justice.