Descriere
The amicable settlement of an inheritance is one of the procedures which, de lege lata, fall within the competence of public notaries. The holders of succession rights frequently resort to this procedure, owing to the indisputable advantages it offers when compared with judicial succession proceedings. This is further evidenced by the fact that, relatively recently (namely, in 2024), the legislator amended the statutory provision governing the territorial competence of public notaries in matters of succession procedure [specifically, Article 15 (a) of Law No. 36/1995, as republished and subsequently amended and supplemented], extending such competence from the territorial jurisdiction of the court of first instance in which the deceased had his or her last domicile to that of the tribunal within whose jurisdiction the deceased had his or her last domicile. Within this procedure, the institution of succession by representation is frequently raised and applied – an enduring feature of our legal system which, under the current Civil Code, has nevertheless undergone certain changes, in some respects substantial. Although its regulation is regarded by the majority of scholars as satisfactory, it is not without shortcomings and has, as we shall show, been the subject of criticism. In the present study, we aim to analyse this legal institution under its principal aspects, from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. At the same time, we shall seek to distinguish succession by representation from another constant of our succession law which displays, to a certain extent, a similar legal configuration, namely the retransmission of the right of succession option, whose statutory regulation likewise reveals certain deficiencies.
