Testate Succession ” in the French and Lithuanian Legal Systems ( Terminological Peculiarities )

The area of family law has suffered crucial changes throughout the centuries. Nowadays, during the times of globalization, these changes are directed towards the internationalization of legal systems of the world. Juridical differences are becoming irrelevant socio-cultural, socio-economic and political developments of one country influence other countries. The comparative study of these developments is becoming a foundation for future harmonization of the world law. The given paper presents a precise study of the French (capitalistic) and Lithuanian (“almost” capitalistic) “testate successions”. It singles out major terminological units and underlines the most prominent peculiarities of the capitalistic and “almost” capitalistic mechanisms of the modes of inheritance.


Introduction
"Inheritance law is the unity of norms, which regulates the legal destiny of a deceased person's property" (Zoidze B., 2000)."It could appear only after the appearance of the private property" (Javakhishvili I., 1984).
The area of family law has suffered crucial changes throughout the centuries.Nowadays, during the times of globalization, these changes are directed towards the internationalization of legal systems of the world.Juridical differences are becoming irrelevant -socio-cultural, socio-economic and political developments of one country influence other countries.The comparative study of these developments is becoming a foundation for future harmonization of the world law.
The given paper presents a precise study of the French (capitalistic) and Lithuanian ("almost" capitalistic) "testate successions".It singles out major terminological units and underlines the most prominent peculiarities of the capitalistic and "almost" capitalistic mechanisms of the modes of inheritance.

"Testate Succession" in the Contemporary Lithuanian law
After a person's death a universal devolution of the estate takes place -"death of the devisor does not bring his property, property rights and duties to a termination.They devolve to the heirs of the deceased, and, in the instances when there are no successors, or none of the successors accepts succession, the rights of the deceased devolve to the state" (Perkumien, Tamašauskien , 2013).
The contemporary Lithuanian law differentiates two ways of property transference: "Paveld jimas pagal testament " (a testate succession) and "Paveld jimas pagal statym " (an intestate succession).The succession arises by operation of law ("Paveld jimas pagal statym ") in the events, when there is no will/testament or the existed testament has been invalidated.In cases of a valid will, "paveld jimas pagal testament " takes place.
The contemporary Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania makes distinction between the official ("oficialieji testamentas") and private ("asmeninis testamentas") wills."Oficialieji testamentas" are usually "made in writing in two copies and attested by the notary public or an official of the Consulate of the Republic of Lithuania in the relevant state" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).In contrast to an official will, "asmeninis testamentas" is written up in hand by the testator indicating the first name and surname of the testator, the date ( a year, a month, a day ) and place where the will was made, expressing the true intent of the testator and signed by him" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).
Any type of a will is usually prepared in a written form by one person (a testator -"testatoriaus").However, the creation of a testament by two persons (only spouses) is also acceptable.Such a testament is called a "joint will" ("bendrasis sutuoktini testamentas") and belongs to the category of "official wills".The Article 5.43 of the Lithuanian Civil Code gives the following definition of "bendrasis sutuoktini testamentas": "By their joint will, the spouses appoint each other as the successors and after the death of one of the spouses, the whole property of the deceased (including the part of the common property of the spouses therefrom) shall be inherited by the surviving spouse, except the mandatory share of succession" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011)."Bendrasis sutuoktini testamentas" is usually created and sighed by the spouses in the presence of a notary or any other person attesting the will.Besides mutual devolution of the estate, "the spouses may bequeath their whole property or a part thereof to the society for worthy causes or to charity.Such a direction of the will may be effectuated from the property of one of the spouses after his (her) death or from the common property of the spouses after the death of the surviving spouse" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).Generally, the Lithuanian legal system enables the testator to bequeath his/her estate, its part or a single thing to the society for useful or charitable purposes.A successor of such property may be even a legal person established for the execution of the will of a testator.The given attitude of the Lithuanian Civil Code directly indicates, that testators are free to bequeath their estate to anyone they wish: "1.Any natural person may bequeath all his property or a part thereof (including ordinary house furnishing and household equipment) to one or several persons irrespective of whether they are his heirs by operation of law, likewise to the state, municipalities or legal persons ; 2. A testator may bequeath all his property or a part thereof to legal persons which will have to be established in executing the will, likewise to natural persons not yet conceived and born ; 3. A testator may by his will disinherit one, several or all of his heirs... " (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).Despite a vividly expressed freedom of disposition, the law of the Republic of Lithuania, as an integral part of the world civil law system, limits the testator's rights of devolution of the estate by recognizing the so-called "mandatory share" or "legitim" ("privalomoji dalis").According to the Article 5.20 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania of 2011: 1. "The testator's children (the adoptees), spouse, parents (the adoptive parents), who were entitled to maintenance on the day of the testator's death shall inherit irrespective of the content of the will a half of the share that each of them would have been entitled to by operation of law (a mandatory share) unless more is bequeathed by the will; 2.
The mandatory share shall be determined taking in regard the value of the inheritable estate, including ordinary house furnishing and household equipment" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).Therefore, the Lithuanian testate succession comprises three major elements: • testatoriaus (a testator) -a creator of a will; • p dinis (an heir) -a person or a legal entity, which receives property from the estate of a deceased, through a will or the laws of intestacy; • testamentas (a will) -a document created by the testator.The property of a deceased person can be considered as the fourth and one of the major elements of the contemporary Lithuanian hereditary relationships.Therefore, according to Article 5.1.of the Lithuanian Civil Code: • "The following shall be subject to succession: material objects (movable and immovable things) and nonmaterial objects (securities, patents, trade marks, etc.) claims of patrimonial character and property obligations of the bequeather; in cases provided for by laws -intellectual property (authors' property rights to works of literature, science and art, neighbouring property rights and rights to industrial property), as well as other property rights and duties stipulated by laws; • The following shall not be subject to succession: personal non-property and property rights inseparable from the person of the bequeather (right to honour and dignity, authorship, right to author's name, inviolability of creative work, to the name of performer and inviolability of performance), right to alimony and benefit paid for the maintenance of the bequeather, right to pension, except in cases provided for by laws" (The Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, 2011).

"Testate Succession" in the Contemporary French law
According to the commonly excepted legal definition: an "inheritance law -sometimes called wills and probate -is concerned with the distribution of a person's property after his (her) death" (Haigh, 2006).It means, that "the successors occupy the part of the deceased person in property relations.This type of permanent link between generations is a sine qua non (an essential precondition) for public stability and perpetuity of cultural, property and spiritual traditions" (The Commentary of the Civil Code of Georgia, 2000) all over the world.The contemporary French law differentiates two ways of property transference: a testate succession (succession