Family and Inheritance Law
Status and succession
Family law governs marriage, parentage, adoption, and maintenance; inheritance law governs succession by will and by law. Understand that family status is largely a matter of public registration, while succession depends on the deceased's last domicile and the applicable law.
Concepts you must know
- Marriage: conclusion, invalidity, divorce by mutual consent and by fault.
- Parentage: presumption, recognition, contestation; adoption effects.
- Matrimonial property regimes: statutory and contractual; division.
- Maintenance obligations between spouses, parents and children.
- Succession: intestate order, forced heirs, will forms, revocation, acceptance and disclaimer, inventory.
Traps
- Confusing divorce grounds with property consequences.
- Forgetting forced-heir shares that limit testamentary freedom.
- Missing deadlines for accepting or disclaiming an inheritance.
- Overlooking that contesting parentage has strict time limits.
Worked example
A testator leaves everything to a friend, ignoring a child. Rule of thumb: check forced-heir entitlement first; the child may claim a reserved share, reducing the gift. Then verify will formalities and limitation.
Rule of thumb
In succession, order the heirs, apply forced-share limits, then check will validity and deadlines.