Succession law in the Russian Federation: Internal law and international private law

The international inheritance issues have recently gained importance in Russia, since the opening of the country and the liberalisation of private international exchanges. Indeed, since 1991, with the URSS disintegration, the Russian nationals began to have their borders open with the possibility to develop their trade in a global economy. As a known phenomenon in all the countries, the immigration is shared between the desire to set down roots in the host country, and unless there is a will to return, at least a desire to have their families left in the original country benefit from their savings. Most of the time, this immigrant population ages and dies in the host country. The rising immigration from and to Russian Federation, illustrates the need of a clear regulation and enforcement in the area of the international inheritance law.

The Russian conflict-of-law rules are mainly governed by internal rules, because the few international conventions signed by Russia in this area are deliberately regional or bilateral. For this reason, the rules of Russian private international law and the internal rules reflect the specificity of its social, economic and legal system. This Ph.D. undertakes a global reflexion on the Russian rules of the international inheritance law area. The two main axis of this study are, on the one hand, the determination of the applicable law to the international inheritance and the exploration of the domain of the Russian law applicable to the international inheritance. The aim of this thesis is to bring support to the patricians called to apply the Russian international private law in the area of inheritance.