Contract of Inheritance - Pact of Succession, pactum successorium

Basic Features

• 3rd delation ground (cf. testament, intestate)
• Form of Contract
• 2 parties => One-sidedly irrevocable
• In breach of „Ambulatoria est voluntas defuncti usque ad vitae supremum exitum“
• Universal succession (vs. deathbed gifts)
• Not in contemplation of death (vs. deathbed gifts)
• Enables to renounce the succession

Roman Law

• Neither civil nor praetorian law recognize
• Gai Inst. 2.114
…militibus … quomodo uelint … permittitur testamentum facere.
…soldiers … are allowed to make a will in any way they want to…
• C 2.3.19 Imperatores Diocletianus, Maximianus
…invicem pactos esse, ut ad eum, qui superstes fuisset, res … pertinerent…
…mutual pact … that the property … should belong to the survivor…
• Roßhirt: „Auf diese Stelle haben die Doctores die Erbverträge der Adelichen ex jure Romano gerechtfertigt, denn Sie seyen milites.“
At this place, the „Doctores“ vindicated the Roman law contracts of inheritance of aristocrats, as they were soldiers.