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Explanatory handbook on EU Regulation 650/2012 on international successions

EU Regulation 650/2012 on international successions provides a simplified framework for people who have private and financial interests in at least two countries, both within and outside the European Union. The regulation introduces a single connecting factor, the law of the last habitual residence of the deceased, in order to designate both the competent jurisdiction to rule on the whole of a succession and the law applicable to a succession. It also introduces the possibility to choose the law of one of the states whose nationality one possesses as the law applicable to one’s succession. The regulation creates the European Certificate of Succession, which will be automatically recognised in all Member States. This handbook aims to present to you the main features of this regulation and familiarise you with how to deal with a succession that has a foreign element.