Green Paper on Succession and Wills
The Green Paper
1. In March 2005 the Commission published a Green
Paper seeking views from interested parties on what action might
be taken at Union level in relation to the law governing wills
and succession, including intestate succession.[1]
The Green Paper acknowledged that it would be "inconceivable"
to harmonise substantive rules relating to wills and succession
and accordingly the Commission restricted itself to posing questions
relating to private international law (jurisdiction, applicable
law and recognition) issues i.e. to cases where there is
a foreign/transnational element. The Green Paper also considered
ways of removing certain administrative and practical obstacles
facing individuals wishing to have their status as "heir"
recognised across Europe. The idea of establishing a "European
Certificate of Inheritance" was mooted.
Scrutiny history
2. The Green Paper was first considered by Sub-Committee
E (Law and Institutions) in May 2005 when it sought clarification
of certain issues from the Government as well as sight of the
Government's Response to the Commission. The Committee reconsidered
the proposal in the light of this further information and cleared
the proposal from scrutiny in October 2006.
3. Representations from the Law Society and the
Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners caused the Sub-Committee
to revisit the Green Paper and on 10 October 2007 the Committee
met Professor Jonathan Harris, University of Birmingham,
and Mr Paul Hughes from the Ministry of Justice. This provided
the opportunity for the Sub-Committee to examine, with their assistance,
the question of the harmonisation within the Union of private
international law rules relating to wills and succession and,
in particular, to seek to identify those areas where action at
Union level would be helpful and how UK citizens might secure
worthwhile practical benefit from such action.
4. Following that meeting the Committee wrote
to the Government setting out further views on the Green Paper
and in particular identifying certain "red lines" for
the UK. A copy of that letter and of the transcript of the evidence
of the meeting with Professor Harris is annexed to this Report,
which is made for the information of the House.
Next steps
5. The Commission's annual policy strategy for
2008[2] and its recent
Legislative and Work Programme 2008[3]
mention that a legislative proposal on succession and wills is
a key action envisaged for 2008. In the meantime the Government
are urgently preparing a further paper for submission to the Commission,
drawing attention again to those matters of great concern to the
UK.
6. The Committee intends to monitor carefully
the progress of this work and to scrutinise the Commission's proposal
when it emerges next year. We have asked the Government to keep
the Committee fully informed of developments and in any event
to let us know how matters stand by the end of March 2008.
1 Green Paper Succession and wills, COM(2005)
65 final. Brussels, 01.03.2005. Back
2
COM(2007) 65 final. Brussels, 21.02.2007. Back
3
COM(2007) 640 final. Brussels, 23.11.2007. Back
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