Arvsrätt : En analys av hemvistprincipen i EU:s arvsförordning och effekten av dess tillämpande i svensk rätt

Sammanfattning: In order to harmonize the international private law and simplify situations of cross-border inheritance, EU has imposed a new inheritance regulation, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession. This regulation governs, among other things, jurisdiction and applicable law in situations of inheritance. The important connecting factor in determining jurisdiction and applicable law is habitual residence. That is why it is important to determine where the deceased person has their habitual residence since the member states’ national regulations look different and thereby have different definitions and interpretations of the term habitual residence. The clarification of the term in the inheritance regulation is therefore important. The question is how the term should be interpreted and which criteria are necessary to acquire habitual residence. The habitual residence term is interpreted as autonomous in the inheritance regulation. This means that the term is interpreted uniformly within all EU member states regardless of the states’ national interpretation of the term. Many circumstances should be taken into consideration when making a determination of habitual residence, such as regularity and duration of the deceased’s presence in the state concerned, the conditions and reasons for that presence, family relationships and social life. These circumstances show where the deceased has their centre of interests and, consequently, also their habitual residence. Furthermore, an analysis is made of which effects the application of the domicile principle will have, instead of the principle of nationality regarding jurisdiction and applicable law, in the Swedish law system. Since the Swedish courts already apply Swedish international private law where the domicile term is used as well as EU-regulations where the domicile principle is applied, it can be assumed that the courts in Sweden will not face particular difficulties in applying the residence principle.