CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES IN INHERITANCE BY LAW IN THE FOURTH ORDER OF SUCCESSION

Assoc. Prof. Мihail Malchev, PhD

Department of Private Law Sciences, Faculty of Law “Angel Kanchev” Univesity of Ruse Institute of State and Law at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

E-mail: mmalchev@uni-ruse.bg

Abstract

With the amendment and addition of the Law on Inheritance (LA) in 1992, the circle of legal heirs was expanded by creating a new fourth order of heirs, which includes close relatives from the third to the sixth degree inclusive - art. 8, para. 4 LA. They inherit if there are no heirs from the first three orders, as well as a surviving spouse (Art. 9, para. 3 LA). The report presents the various opinions expressed in the case law of the Supreme Court in the hypotheses in which the summoned heirs from the fourth order renounce inheritance and there are other heirs falling into this order, but from a more distant degree or line of collateral relatives. The author argues his views on the discussion issues and formulates a conclusion on the need for possible legislation that would explicitly regulate the discussed hypothesis.

Keywords

inheritance by law, fourth order of inheritance, collateral relatives up to the sixth degree, exclusion, renunciation of inheritance

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