INTESTATE SUCCESSION IN THE ROMAN LAW

(With a Short Overview of the Macedonian Law on Succession)

Abstract

The solutions on the criteria for selection of intestate
successors, as well as the position and significance of the intestate
succession as subsidiary succession in different succession systems
seem to be a constantly present question.
Having in mind the fact that the author of this paper is
particularly interested in the historical aspect of the genesis and
development of intestate succession and its characteristics, the focus
of this work concerns the intestate succession system in the Roman
law.
In addition, the paper reveals the chronologically separate
characteristics of determination of legal successors, which are
appropriately characteristic for the three development stages through
which the entire legal system of the grandiose Roman Empire passed.
The elaboration of the gradual development and the changes which
were conditioned by the modified social conditions on one hand, and
the strong custom component influencing the system of intestate
succession on the other hand, argue in favour of the indisputably
strong connection between the still nonpareil Roman legal genius and
the legal transplants of the modern continental legal systems.