Succession Law Procedure Coverage in Estonian Public Electronic Databases: Ametlikud Teadaanded and the Succession Register

• Author: Urve Liin
• Pages: 197-205

197

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 21/2014

Urve Liin

Magister iuris, Lecturer of Civil Law

University of Tartu

Succession Law Procedure

Coverage in Estonian

Public Electronic Databases:

Ametlikud Teadaanded and

the Succession Register

1. Introduction

In the wake of preparation of the European Succession Regulation*1 and with its coming into force on

17 August 2015, succession law procedure, including problems related to registers of wills, has become an

important issue in the European Union.

To make it easier to f‌i nd a will in Europe, the Notaries of Europe created the European Network of Reg-

isters of Wills (ENRW/ARERT). Operational since 2002 through secure interconnection among the vari-

ous national registers, the ENRW makes it possible to carry out an EU-wide search for the will of a person

who has died. The ENRW provides a common platform allowing exchange of information between national

registers of wills, among them the Estonian Succession Register.*2

The Estonian register of wills—the Succession Register—was established on 1 October 1996, in accor-

dance with §173 of the f‌i rst Estonian Succession Law Act*3 (the 1996 LSA). Since 2001, there has been

an additional source of information about succession matters, in the form of notices of succession pro-

ceedings (Pärimisteated) in a public electronic database—namely, in the publication Off‌i cial Announce-

ments ( Ametlikud Teadaanded)*4.

The aim of this paper is to analyse these two Estonian databases and compare the goals set for the Esto-

nian Succession Register to those set for other registers of wills in EU Member States in order to suggest

some proposals for future development.

1 Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 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 Certif‌i cate of Succession. – OJ L 201, 27.7.2012, pp. 107–134.

2 The European Network of Registers of Wills Association. Available at http://www.arert.eu/ (most recently accessed on

18.2.2014).

3 Pärimisseadus. – RT I 1996, 38, 752 … RT I, 2008, 7, 52 (in Estonian). English text available at http://www.legaltext.ee/et/

andmebaas/tekst.asp?loc=text&dok=X1001K3&keel=en&pg=1&ptyyp=RT&tyyp=X&query=p%E4rimisseadus (most recently

accessed on 12.2.2014).

4 Off‌i cial Announcements are managed by the Estonian Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK). They are available

via http://www.rik.ee/en/off‌i cial-announcements (most recently accessed on 12.2.2014).

http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/JI.2014.21.18