A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE SPECIAL AVAILABLE PORTION OF THE SURVIVING SPOUSE PROVIDED BY THE ROMANIAN CIVIL CODE

• Main Author: Silviu-Dorin ŞCHIOPU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nicolae Titulescu University Publishing House 2016-05-01
• Series: Challenges of the Knowledge Society
• Subjects: Romanian Civil Code; estate; inheritance; special available portion of the surviving spouse; donations and bequests; succession by representation.
• Online Access: http://cks.univnt.ro/uploads/cks_2016_articles/index.php?dir=02_privat_law%2F&download=CKS+2016_private_law_art.042.pdf

Nowadays, the article 1090 of the New Civil Code regulates the special available portion of the surviving spouse, a legal institution that has passed the test of time. Although the 2004 draft of the new Civil code failed to mention it, the Amending Commission (re)introduced the special available portion of the surviving spouse in competition with the children resulted from a previous relationship of the deceased spouse. For a better understanding of the legitimacy and perennity of this institution, this short overview attempts, on the one hand, to highlight certain historical aspects that defined its evolution and present-day configuration, and, on the other hand, to examine the relation between the special available portion of the surviving spouse and the succession by representation of the deceased’s descendants.