On The Legal Protection Of The Creditor’s Interests On The Heritance

Legal protection of the interest of estate creditors is one of the important issuesin the succession legal system. The current Chinese Succession Law focuses onprotection of the heirs’ interest, and it only specifies principles of protecting theinterest of estate creditors, that is, when heirs inherit the estate, the tax and debt wouldbe paid to the extent of the actual estate value. As for the debt that is more than theestate, it is not paid off unless heirs voluntarily pay it off. In the event that an heirgives up succession, he or she would not take responsibility to pay the tax and debt.Therefore, the current succession law implements the unconditional limitedsuccession.With the fast economic growth in China, numbers and categories of privateproperties citizens possess are dramatically increasing, and the social economyactivities among people are increasingly frequent and complicated, so the event thatheirs damage creditors’ interest happens from time to time. However, in accordancewith the current Succession Law, no regulation expressly specifies punishment anddisposal of such a harmful action. Therefore, as for the phenomenon that heirsdamage creditors’ interest upon succession of the estate, and the existing situation andissue of protecting the interest of estate creditors under the current Succession Laware analyzed, having learned from relevant foreign legislations and relevant contentsof the legislative proposal drafted by experts, having combined the actual Chinesesituations, the article will put forward relevant suggestions on protecting the interest of the estate creditors in China, so that the current Succession Law could strengthenand improve relevant regulations on protection of the interest of estate creditors andresolve loopholes and flaws.Besides the introduction and the conclusion in this article, there are three parts inthe main body.The first part introduces basic theories of estate creditors. Firstly, the concept ofestate creditors is analyzed and defined in this part, and then protection methods ofthe interest of estate creditors in the direct succession system and in the indirectsuccession system are introduced. Finally, the theory basis of protecting the interest ofestate creditors is introduced, which embodies the principle of equality, fairness andgood faith in the civil law.The second part is about legislative analysis of protecting the interest of estatecreditors in China. Firstly, relevant regulations on disposal of the estate under thecurrent Succession Law are introduced and analyzed, and the manifestations ofdamaging the interest of estate creditors are concludes upon succession of the estate.Besides, the decencies on protecting the interest of estate creditors under theSuccession Law are pointed out in this part.The third part is about improvement of the legal system of protecting the interestof estate creditors in China. Firstly, the estate management in France, Germany andSwitzerland is introduced and learned. Secondly, this part introduces relevantregulations of protecting the interest of estate creditors based on the three legislativeproposals. Finally, through learning the Legislative Proposal, Clause proposal andDraft of Proposed Amendment as well as relevant estate management system in thecontinental legal system, combining the actual Chinese situations, this partspecifically addresses the protection system of the interest of estate creditors in Chinain the four aspects, including establishing the conditional limited succession system,specifying the joint liability of succession debts among several heirs, granting therelief system of estate creditors and establishing the estate management system.Besides, this part puts forward the improved legislative suggestion.