The master's thesis presents the limitations of the decedent's will in disposing of their property inter vivos and mortis causa. Inheritance law is one of the disciplines of civil law, where subjects operate within their own autonomy of will. Even though the right to private property and the right to inherit property are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, the decedent's autonomy of will in disposing of their property is not unlimited. One of the reasons for such arrangement is the principle of inheritance within the family, the purpose of which is to preserve property within the family, thus preventing existential distress of family members following the death of the decedent.
The Slovenian legal system knows a number of limitations related to the autonomy of the decedent's will in disposing of their property. The necessary share is the strongest substantive restriction on the freedom of testing. The decedent's autonomy of will is limited, inter alia, by the invalidity of most inheritance contracts, the prohibition of fideicommissary substitution and the invalidity of a joint will.
The current inheritance arrangement was adopted in 1976 with the Inheritance Act. As it has been minimally amended since, it is still possible to detect elements of the socialist legal order in certain details. Given that the law changes and adapts to new conditions of the society, the theory and practice have long held the view that certain reforms were needed as regards inheritance. In principle, the view is that the individual's autonomy of will is too limited.
Comparative legal analysis has shown that the autonomy of the decedent's will is significantly more limited in the Slovenian legal system than abroad, where there has been a tendency to reduce the number of restrictions pertaining to the decedent's will. This ought to be regulated in Slovenia as well.
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