Significance of Equal Distribution of Inheritance in modern Japan

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K01363
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 05060:Civil law-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Urano Yukiko 神戸大学, 法学研究科, 教授 (70309417)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 法定相続 / 均分相続 / 相続契約

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study analyzed the debate over the principle of equal inheritance in the several revisions of inheritance laws from the postwar period to the present, and clarified that the principle of equal inheritance and other principles of the inheritance law may be forced to be reconsidered in the current era of diversification of family functions and forms. This study also examined the theoretical possibility of the scheme of "prior regulation of inheritance by contract," which has been denied because it conflicts with the principle of equal inheritance, from the perspective of the expansion and limits of the "freedom of the decedent to dispose of his/her property".

Free Research Field

民法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

家族の機能・形態の多様化や高齢化が進む現代においては、法定相続とは異なるアラカルトな遺産承継プランニング（遺言・生前処分の活用等）の必要性と重要性が強く意識されるようになってきている。本研究は、現代人のニーズにあった遺産承継手段を整備するうえで過度の障害となっている均分相続の理念につき、必要な限度で克服するための基礎作業となるものであるとともに、被相続人の財産処分の自由の可能性を、契約による相続規律という視点から新たに捉えなおそうとするものである。