Creditor Protection in Succession Law: a Comparative Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-290
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Murga Fernández

The transfer of the deceased's debts is a common consequence that arises from the phenomenon of succession in both civil and common law legal systems. In this respect, a number of conflicting interests are at stake: namely, the interest of the beneficiaries that need to be balanced against the interests of the different groups of creditors (the ones of the estate and those of the beneficiaries). Common law legal systems are generally considered as the most creditor friendly, for beneficiaries only receive the residue once the estate is fully wound up. By contrast, civil law legal systems are characterised by the dogma of fusion of patrimonies, where the estate is fused with the beneficiary's patrimony. Taking these aspects into account, the article analyses how creditors’ interests are protected in the most representative European succession laws, with a view to identifying the merits and shortcomings of each of these models.

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 520-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khurram Parvez Raja ◽  
Alex Kostyuk

The paper outlines shareholder activism development in common law and civil law countries and identifies features of these legal systems that create preconditions and obstacles for shareholder activism. Our findings show that tendencies of shareholder activism depend on the type of the legal system, but also vary within the countries that share the same legal system. Thus, we conclude that the type of legal system is not the chief determinant of shareholder activism. A comparative analysis of shareholder activism in Germany and Ukraine (civil law countries) and the USA and the UK (common law countries) shows that the system of domestic corporate regulation, development of the stock market, companies’ capitalization and corporate governance influence the development of shareholder activism in equal measure.


Perspectivas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-107
Author(s):  
Florencia S. Ratti Mendaña ◽  

This article evidences multiple ways in which judicial precedent is used in different legal systems. It shows that: a) precedent is currently used, one way or another, in every legal system but its use differs in each legal system and frequently it is used differently even between courts of the same legal system; b) a comparative analysis under the methodology hereby proposed would provide useful tools in order to address how to “treat like cases alike”. The main aim of this research is to set the conceptual framework for an adequate understanding and study of the doctrine of precedent. To do this, some dimensions of the doctrine of precedent will be added to those enumerated by Michele Taruffo and analyzed not only theoretically, but also under concrete examples of how they work in different legal systems —both of common law and civil law.


2021 ◽  
pp. 339-366
Author(s):  
Giacinto della Cananea

This chapter explores the common and distinctive elements that emerge from the comparative analysis of legal systems, in terms of commonality and diversity in administrative law. It begins by outlining the main institutional features of the legal systems selected for the comparison, with an initial focus on the idea of a 'divide' between civil law and common law. The two important features of the legal systems examined in this book include judicial independence and judicial specialization. The chapter then discusses the procedural requirements at the heart of the factual analysis. It concludes by reflecting on the relevance and significance of this analysis for the general enquiry concerning the common core of European administrative laws.


Author(s):  
Jacques Du Plessis

Legal systems generally are ‘mixed’ in the sense that they have been influenced by a variety of other systems. However, this label traditionally is only attached to those systems which represent a mix between the common law and the civilian tradition. This article focuses on what studies of mixed legal systems reveal about the broader comparative themes of the classification of legal systems, whether and how borrowing can take place, the quality of the law to which borrowing gives rise, the connection between civil law and the common law in the European context, and the role which language can play in comparative analysis and legal development.


Author(s):  
Daniel Berkowitz ◽  
Karen B. Clay

Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions—such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems—impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth. The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law systems, the two were more equal. Former civil-law states and common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states. This book illustrates how initial geographical and historical conditions can determine the evolution of political and legal institutions and long-run growth.


Global Jurist ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Terranova

AbstractLegal transplants are considered a significant factor in the evolution of legal systems. One example of transplant of a legal institution through its prestige is the diffusion of the trust from the English legal system to other common law systems and to many civil law countries. One of these is China that in 2001 enacted the Trust Law of the People’s Republic of China. This paper wants to analyse the trust under the Trust Law and to compare it with the original model in the English legal system, understanding how far or how close it is from the original one.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Margaret Fordham

AbstractThis article examines the issues experienced by civil lawyers when studying the common law. It considers the extent of the differences between common law and civil law legal systems, examines the challenges which students from civil law jurisdictions face when first exposed to the common law, analyses the various ways in which these challenges may be met, and summarises civilians’ overall impressions of the common law.


2018 ◽  
pp. 213-237
Author(s):  
Nancy O. Gallman ◽  
Alan Taylor

Gallman and Taylor take up murder at the boundary zones between the Iroquois and British settlers and between Spanish Florida and the Lower Creeks and Seminoles. Despite contrasts between the legal systems of the empires—civil law and inquisitorial procedure on the Spanish side, common law and trial by jury on the British side—indigenous groups came to similar conclusions regarding murder. Specifically, Native leaders rejected execution of the guilty, as proposed by English law, or other punishments, from execution to imprisonment to exile, under Spanish law. They opted instead to resolve matters by “covering the grave,” or giving gifts by the culpable party to the aggrieved party in lieu of revenge. This practice was less likely to spark a blood feud and enabled indigenous groups to preserve corporate autonomy in the face of pressures to conform to imperial norms. Though reluctantly, imperial officials often went along with this in order to keep the peace.


2020 ◽  
pp. 35-70
Author(s):  
Scott Slorach ◽  
Judith Embley ◽  
Peter Goodchild ◽  
Catherine Shephard

This chapter focuses on the sources of law in England & Wales, and is organised as follows. Section 2.1 describes the key jurisdictions relevant to lawyers in England and Wales. Section 2.2 deals with the issue of where the law comes from: sources of law. Section 2.3 reviews the development of the two ‘traditional’ sources of law in England and Wales: case law and statutes. Sections 2.4 and 2.5 consider the status and operation of EU and international law, including the potential effect of Brexit. Section 2.7 goes on to discuss public and private law, common law, and civil law, and other classifications used by lawyers. This is followed by a discussion of legal systems and their cultures across the world.


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